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LIBRARY 

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University, OF  California. 

^cceision        9275B           Class  984- ol 
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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/commonsensephiloOOfostrich 


The  smallest  body,  or  molecule,  has  four  parts. 


A 


(7l/U^  . 


THE     COMMON -SENSE     PHILOSOPHY 
OF    SPIRIT    OR    PSYCHOLOGY 


WRITTEN   FROM    SPIRIT    IMPRESSION 


BY 
CHARLES   H.    FOSTER 

OF  ALAMEDA,  CALIFORNIA 


•   OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


SAN   FRANCISCO 
I    9  O   I 


Copyright,  28th  January,  1901, 
FOSTER. 


i^v""-: 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED, 


s 


KATIE'S   LEGACY. 


To  m?/  dear  daughter  K't: 
Before  entering  the  door  of  this  college^ 
First  TEST  and  see  that  your  mind  he  free, 
Ere  seeking  herein  for  knowledge. 
For  as  you  receive  these  truths  of  mine. 
Shall  1  remain  forever  thine. 
Here  's  Nature,  grand,  supreme,  sublime ; 
There  are  no  dead,  there  is  not   time. 
Nor  yet  no  life,  as  ice  'II  unfold, 
While  HEAT  there  may  he,  yet  no  cold. 


92756 


CONTENTS 


Page. 

Introductory 6 

ChapterI.  The  Atom 20 

II.  First  Impression  —What  is  Truth  —  But  Three  Eter- 
nal Facts  — Birth  of  the  World 27 

III.  Spirit  Life— No  Such  Thing  as  Time— Atom  Life 33 

IV.  Sixth  Sense— Growth  of  the  Physical  World  -^  Birth 

of  the  Spirit  World 37 

V.  Development  of  a  Medium— Spirit  Hypnotism— Why 

Darkness  is  Preferable 41 

VI.  The  Mystic  Circle—  Destiny 54 

VII.  Sensitised,  Progressed,  or  Spirit  Ether— Spirit  Return 

—  Sympathetic  Attraction 58 

VIII.  Ponderable  and  Imponderable— Strange  Gods 64 

IX.  Healing  by  the  Ultimate  Atom 69 

X.  A  Little  Grain  of  Corn,  or  The  Quickening  Germ 

of  Life 76 


CONTENTS. 
Chaptek.                                                                                                              Page. 
XI.  Hypnotism— You  do  not  See  with  your  Eyes 79 

XII.  Reply  to  Professor  Huxley  on  The  Physical  Basis 

of  Life 84 

XIII.  Prophecy 89 

XIV.  The  Over-Soul,  or  God  and  its  Affinity  to  Matter 92 

XV.  God,  Life  and  Over-Soul 99 

XVI.  Vitality  in  Stones  —  A  New  Substance 102 

XVII.  Spirit  the  ElBfect  of  Physical  Cause— Condition  of 

Childhood 108 

XVIII.  Materialization  —  The   Object  of  Materialization  — 

Animal  Curiosity— Educated  Parrots 115 

XIX.  That  which  Thinks  Thoughts  — Birth  of  the  Spirit 

Body  and  the  Soul— The  Cause  of  all  Causation...  122 

XX.  Planetary  and  Elementary  Spirits  so-called  —  The 
Birth  of  Intelligence  and  Wisdom  —  Astral  Shell 
—Reincarnation 131 

XXI.  Animal  Spirits— Will  the  World  Eventually  Turn  to 
a  Grease  Spot?— Will  we  be  Annoyed  by  Fleas 
and  Things  in  the  Spirit  World? 143 

XXII.  Clairvoyance— Clairaudience— Investigating  Mater- 
ialization— Wonderful  Manifestations 149 

XXIII.  Parody  on  Common  Sense 181 

XXIV.  Birth-Marks ! 183 


CONTENTS. 
Chapter.                                                                                                          Page. 
XXV.  The  Keystone,  or  A  Peep  Behind  the  Veil— The  Brain 
the  Highest  Physical  Matter  — How  a  Child  is 
Born  Deaf  and  Dumb. 191 

XXVI.  Reason  and  Intelligence — Thought  Transference  — 
Hypnotic  Subject  — Your  Thoughts  are  on  the 
Outside  of  Your  Brain 196 

XXVII.  Spirit  Double— Personating  a  Spirit 214 

XXVIII.  There  is  no  Death— Have  you  a  Body? 220 

XXIX.  Is  Physical  Force  Transmittible  to  Spirit  and  Vice 
Versa  —  Miracles  —  Passing  Matter  Through 
Matter— The  Immortality  of  the  Soul 225 

XXX.  The  First  Dawn  of  the  Spark  of  Life  — Which  was 

First,  the  Egg  or  the  Chicken? 232 

XXXI.  If  no  Matter  is  Destroyed,  what  Becomes  of  it? 240 

XXXII.   What  are  Life  and  Matter  Composed  of  ?— Psycho- 
physical—The  Beginning  of  Sex 253 

XXXIII.  Educated  Mediums 267 

XXXIV.   Is  the  Course  of  Life  and  Matter  Forever  Onward  ?  275 

XXXV.  A  Question  to  Astronomers.... 282 

XXXVI.  Substance,  Animation  and  Matter 303 

XXXVII.   Descartes'  Vortex  versus  Newton's  Gravity— Phys- 
ical or  Mechanical  Force  versus  Atomic  Energy  311 

XXXVIII.  Placing  the  Keystone 323 


CONTENTS. 

Chapter.  Page. 

XXXIX.  Lower   Physics  —  Psycho-Physics  and  Higher,    or 

Metaphysics 330 

XL.  A  Comment  on  Max  Muller's  Philosophy  of  Thought 

— What  is  Rational  Reason? 335 

XLL  Is  it  Right  to  Kill? 355 

XLII.   A  Review  and  Adieu 367 

The  Obituary 370 

Independent  Spirit- Writing 371 


INTRODUCTORY. 


As  the  author  of  this  work  received  what  little  edu- 
cation he  has  in  the  next  thing  to  a  log  cabin,  a  single- 
room  schoolhouse,  we  hope  that  "  we  demn  folks," 
at  least,  will  be  fair  to  middling  in  criticising  our 
poverty  in  rhetorical  flourishes,  and  will  understand 
that  an  impressional  writer  does  not  receive  the 
WORDS  from  his  control  but  that  they  come  to  him 
more  in  the  form  of  a  picture ;  he  sees  it,  senses  it,  or 
just  gets  it.  In  fact,  it  is  difficult  to  describe.  You 
will  understand  that  Truth  and  facts  are  not  neces- 
sarily words  which  are  only  a  convenience  made  by 
man,  who  is  not  infallible.  It  is  not  in  the  power  of 
man  to  give  to  the  world  reliable  instruction  when 
starting  from  a  point  in  the  UNKNOWN  and,  we  may 
say,  UNKNOWABLE. 

Nearly  all  philosophers  who  have  given  to  the 
world  treatises  on  metaphysics,  from  Bruno  to  Kant, 
have  invariably  started  from  the  wrong  end  of  the 
question  by  assuming  as  their  first  postulate  that 
which  Ave  think  should  have  been  their  very  last  and 
highest  conclusion,  namely:  A  FIRST  CAUSE.  A 
thing,  if  existing,  must,  from  the  very  nature  of  the 
thing,  be  forever  beyond  the  comprehension  of  finite 


(6) 

man,  and  would  be  better  understood  as  a  LAST 
CAUSE,  so  far  as  the  object  of  the  investigator  is  con- 
cerned. For  if  man  should  ever  reach  that  knowledge, 
it  would  naturally  be  the  last  end  of  his  labor  and  not 
the  first.  By  pursuing  the  course  they  have  they  were 
compelled,  from  the  start,  to  build  in  the  dark  on  an 
unknown  quantity  and  quality  for  a  foundation.  From 
working  the  question,  first  on  a  downward  course  of 
reasoning  from  an  assumed  first  cause  to  the  physical 
world  and  then  trying  to  retrace  their  logic  back  to 
this  imaginary  starting-point,  they  found  it  invari- 
ably left  the  result  of  their  labor  in  a  chaotic  state 
which  neither  satisfied  themselves  or  the  student. 

While  such  a  course  of  reasoning  may  be  good 
enough  for  the  Church,  to  prove  the  Bible  right  by  the 
Church,  and  the  Church  right  by  the  Bible,  yet  it  does 
not  satisfy  the  Truth. 

Would  these  same  philosophers  consider  it  a  proper 
course  to  instruct  a  child  in  the  mysteries  of  Euclid 
by  beginning  with  the  classics,  or  would  they  begin 
with  the  numerals  and  multiplication  table?  Would 
they  begin  to  teach  a  boy  how  to  construct  a  com- 
pound steam-engine  by  giving  him  charge  of  the  en- 
gineer's department  of  an  ocean  steamer?  Recogniz- 
ing this  as  the  cause  of  their  failure  in  the  past,  and 
seeing  the  utter  impossibility  of  man's  ever  being  able 
to  prove  a  first  cause,  the  very  nature  of  which  places 
it  forever  beyond  human  comprehension,  we,  in  this 


(7) 

work,  have  thought  it  advisable  to  begin  at  the  little 
end  (the  atom)  and  trace  upwards  from  effect  to 
cause,  instead  of  from  cause  to  effect.  By  assuming 
this  position  we  are  not  required  to  saj  to  our  student 
at  the  very  beginning  of  his  labor :  "  Just  please  ac- 
cept our  first  postulate,  ex  nihilo  nihil  fit,  and  leave 
reason  behind,"  for  you  must  take  it  for  granted  that 
only  in  this  one  instance  was  the  very  first  cause  from 
nothing,  but  all  else,  my  son,  had  a  cause. 

"  In  the  beginning  was  God.''  Well,  how  about  be- 
fore this  beginning?  No,  my  friend;  such  logic  will 
convince  no  one,  for,  however  reluctant  man  is  to  ac- 
knowledge his  ignorance,  this  is  a  case  where  he  has 
just  got  to,  whether  he  likes  it  or  not,  so  we  might  as 
well  be  honest  about  it  and  say  we  do  not  know  that 
it  is  a  person,  a  being,  an  idea,  or  a  condition,  and  all 
that  we  do  know  is  that  life  exists  (i.  e.,  as  thought 
mid  force). 

By  starting  our  investigations  from  the  atom  of  life 
and  matter  we  assume  nothing,  but  have  a  known  and 
fixed  point  of  demarcation  to  work  from,  and  by  fol- 
lowing on  such  lines  of  truth  as  have  already  been 
proven  such  (i.  e.,  from  effect  to  cause),  we  have  the 
satisfaction  of  being  able  to  prove  our  work  as  we 
proceed.  In  this  manner  we  will  endeavor  to  lead  the 
student  to  the  known  truth  of  spirit.  From  this  point 
we  have  the  right  to  form  an  a  priori  opinion ;  but  one 
step  further  and  we  will  infer  that  from  Spirit  is  pro- 


(8  ) 

dnced  a  Soul ;  be^^ond  this  point  all  is  purely  conjec- 
ture, even  with  the  spirit. 

Furthermore,  you  may  examine  the  chain  we  have 
wrought  for  you  now  that  we  think  that  we  have  com- 
pleted it,  from  either  end  you  please,  either  from  ef- 
fect to  cause  or  from  cause  to  effect,  and  see  if  you  can 
find  a  reasonable  flaw,  bearing  in  mind  that. 

The  noblest  attribute  of  man  is  to  be  charitable  in 
your  thoughts  of  others. 

Recognizing  the  extreme  difficulty  of  teaching  the 
essence  of  the  Occult  Science  in  such  a  way  as  will  en- 
able us  to  place  this  little  volume  in  the  hands  of  the 
middle  class  of  people,  we  thought  our  work  could 
best  be  accomplished  by  adhering  as  closely  as  pos- 
sible to  the  following  common-sense  rules : 

First. — To  boil  it  down  to  as  few  words  as  possible. 

Second. — To  refrain  from  ambiguous  words  and 
stick  to  plain  United  States. 

Third. — Recognizing,  as  we  do,  that  all  religions  or 
creeds  are  founded  on  Truth  and  the  good  of  mankind, 
— as  they  understand  it, — and  that  the  intentions  of 
the  founders  of  all  creeds  w^ere  pure  and  sincere,  and 
knowing,  as  we  do  from  experience  and  otherwise, 
that  the  universe  is  constructed  upon  that  mystic  law 
of  the  positive  and  negative  of  life  and  matter,  we  rec- 
ognize that  for  man  or  spirit  to  do  and  to  act  good 
is  to  acknowledge  the  presence  of  the  negative  of  good, 
which  is  error. 


(9) 

Here  we  assert  that  wherever  man  finds  error  or 
evil  there  also  will  he  find  good,  if  he  is  anxious  to  find 
the  one  as  the  other ;  for  it  is  not  only  the  nature  but 
the  necessity  for  the  existence  of  the  one  to  be  found 
in  company  of  the  other;  i.  e.,  the  positive  and  the 
negative.  Nor  will  this  condition  be  changed  until 
all  shall  have  become  at  one  with  Infinite,  or  Perfec- 
tion. Hence  you  will  perceive  the  impossibility  of  a 
so-called  Millennium. 

In  all  teachings  where  a  body  of  people  join  togeth- 
er for  the  promulgating  of  some  discovered  or  re- 
vealed truth,  there  is  to  be  found  a  certain  percentage 
of  error;  and  it  would  appear  from  past  experiences 
that  the  older  the  creed  the  more  the  w^eeds  accumu- 
late. But  be  the  weeds  ever  so  thick,  the  truth  that  ex- 
ists among  the  weeds  should  ever  be  man's  most 
sacred  charge,  and  to  bring  these  truths  to  light  his 
bounden  duty  to  progression. 

In  this  work  we  have  endeavored  to  steer  clear  of 
those  shoals  that  have  in  the  past  wrecked  so  many 
creeds.  In  particular,  we  have  not  advanced  or  at- 
tempted to  sustain  any  part  of  this  work  on  belief; 
nor  do  we  appeal  to  your  credulity  or  offer  you  our 
own  opinion^  but  offer  you  known  scientific  facts  in 
one  unbroken  chain  of  evidence  which  must  appeal  to 
your  own  reasonable  common  sense. 

We  deny  that  any  thing  was  ever  created^  or  that 
there  is  one  particle  of  know  n  evidence  in  existence  to 


(10) 

sustain  the  theory  that  some  thing  can  be,  or  ever  was^ 
produced  from  nothing,  and  we  claim  that  all  known 
scientific  researches  lead  directly  to  the  contrary. 
For  the  enlightened  mind  at  this  advanced  age  to  en- 
tertain such  a  preposterous  supposition  or  belief  is 
to  erect  one  of  the  false  gods  which  this  work  has  en- 
deavored to  overthrow. 

In  our  use  of  the  words  positive  and  negative  we 
wish  to  be  understood  as  having  reference  to  the  op- 
posites,  such  as  with  the  crooked  you  have  straight, 
good  and  bad,  love  and  hate,  attraction  and  repulsion, 
sleeping  and  awakening,  truth  and  error,  etc.  We 
have  also  refrained  from  abusing  the  other  lawyer; 
nor  have  we  been  compelled  to  wander  off  into  a  lofty 
flow  of  rhetoric,  in  order  to  show  our  want  of  live  mat- 
ter to  consume  printer's  ink — for,  had  we  done  so,  we 
should  have  defeated  the  very  object  of  this  work, 
which  is  intended  as  a  guide  or  text-book  on  only 
known  law^s  and  facts,  laid  down  in  an  abstract  man- 
ner. Another  object  was  that  it  might  be  the  means 
of  saving  the  young  investigator  a  few  dollars  and 
some  time,  by  steering  him  in  the  right  direction.  We 
think,  at  least,  that  after  he  reads  this  book  carefully 
he  will  not  invest  five  dollars  in  so-called  magnetized 
slates.  However,  I  shall  be  sorry  if  I  shall  have 
robbed  him  of  some  of  the  supposed  sweets  that  gen- 
erally accompany  the  kissing  and  hugging  of  his  best 
girl  when  she  comes  in  the  form  of  a  materialized 


( 11  > 

spirit.  (With  all  due  respect  to  the  spirit  or  autom- 
aton.   Ahem ! ) 

The  author  will  here  state  the  circumstances  which 
induced  him  to  undertake  this  work,  and  the  reader 
must  use  his  own  judgment  as  to  the  truth  or  proba- 
bility of  the  deductions  that  it  was  written  under 
spirit  control,  for  I  have  no  proofs  to  offer  except  the 
book  itself.  It  is  my  desire  that  the  compiler  will 
place  the  various  days,  months,  years,  etc.,  at  such 
points  in  the  writings  as  he  finds  them  in  the  manu- 
script.   This  will,  I  hope,  be  some  evidence. 

For  about  a  month  previous  to  January  5,  1894, 
some  power  seemed  to  continually  urge  me  to  take  up 
a  blank  tablet  and  write.  Well,  I  knew  that  I  could 
not  write  as  I  could  wish,  and  I  was  afraid  of  a  fail- 
ure. Finally  it  grew  so  very  urgent  that  I  picked  up 
the  book,  sharpened  a  pencil, — and  positively,  reader, 
I  had  not  the  slightest  idea  what  I  was  going  to  wTite. 
As  soon  as  I  placed  the  pencil  on  the  paper,  the  first 
sentence  came  into  my  mind,  and  by  the  time  I  had 
that  down  another  sentence  took  its  place.  It  did  not 
appear  to  make  any  difference  how  fast  I  wrote,  the 
other  sentence  was  always  ready;  in  fact,  I  soon 
learned  that  the  faster  I  wrote  and  the  less  I  tried  to 
think,  the  better  I  progressed.  This  would  continue 
until  I  had  written  about  six  or  seven  hundred  words, 
when  right  in  the  middle  of  a  sentence  some  times, 
the  force,  intelligence,  or  whatever  it  was,  would  leave 


(12) 

me,  and  I  could  not  think  of  a  word  to  save  me.  The 
next  day,  about  the  same  time,  the  same  desire  to 
write  would  come  over  me,  and  away  we  would  go 
again.  After  I  would  get  through,  it  was  just  as  in- 
teresting to  me  as  though  I  had  never  seen  it  before. 
This  would  keep  up  sometimes  for  three  or  four  days ; 
then  I  would  not  be  able  to  write  for  several  days. 
Then  the  power  left  me  for  over  a  year,  then  stayed 
for  a  week,  and  again  left  a  breach  of  one  and  a  half 
years,  beginning  again  in  February,  1897. 

At  this  time  I  found  that  I  could  write  almost  con- 
tinuously. After  looking  over  the  writings,  I  seldom 
(^ver  changed  a  word  or  made  a  correction ;  all  told,  I 
j)robably  changed  in  the  whole  volume  one  hundred 
words.  I  do  not  claim  the  article  on  healing  or  my  ex- 
])erience  with  mediums  as  impressional,  but  the  rest 
of  this  book  certainly  is,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge, 
for  several  explanations  found  within  were  entirel}^ 
contrary  to  my  previous  convictions, — especially  so 
the  article  on  the  automaton  theory  of  materialization 
and  the  declination  of  the  earth's  axis.  Again  you 
must  remember  that  it  should  cut  no  figure  with  you 
by  whom  or  how  the  work  was  done;  the  Devil  could 
utter  a  truth  as  well  as  a  saint.  It  is  not  a  question  as 
to  who  Galileo  was,  or  whether  such  a  man  lived  or 
not.  The  question  is :  Is  it  a  truth,  and  will  it  bene- 
fit man  to  know  it?  I  cannot  see  that  the  personality 
of  the  author  has  anything  to  do  with  it  whatever. 


(  13  )  f  ^ 

I   UNi.w V 

v.     «         OF 

NOTICE  TO  THE  READER.        ^^'"-^^^-g^^ 

We  would  most  respectfully  call  the  attention  of  the 
reader  of  this  book  to  the  most  important  considera- 
tion of  all,  and  that  is:  Do  not  attempt  to  read  this 
book,  in  particular,  if  you  are  at  the  same  time  think- 
ing of  what  you  are  going  to  have  for  dinner,  or  how 
your  new  dress  fits,  or  the  state  of  the  wheat  market ; 
when  you  do  get  started  with  it,  and  you  find  yourself 
getting  sleepy,  for  God's  sake,  lay  it  down  and  take  a 
nap.  If  any  one  should  annoy  you  at  the  time,  offer  to 
loan  them  the  book,  stating  that  you  will  finish  it 
when  they  are  through ;  for  unless  you  can  raise  your 
moral  courage  to  that  extent  and  be  able  to  enter  into 
the  spirit  of  the  subject,  or  read  between  the  lines,  so 
to  speak,  it  will  be  perfectly  useless  for  you  to  attempt 
the  study  of  so  delicate  a  subject  as  metaphysics. 
Neither  will  it  benefit  you  to  skip  through  it  in  a  cur- 
sory manner,  as  you  will  find  that  each  succeeding 
page  is  but  the  result  of  the  preceding  one,  our  object 
being  from  the  beginning  to  start  the  edifice  from 
the  foundation  {an  atom),  knowing  full  well  that  we 
should  find  a  place  for  the  keystone  when  we  had  to 
use  it. 

We  most  sincerely  hope  that  the  reader  will  meet 
with  the  same  success. 

One  writing  from  impression  stands  in  relation  to 
the  information  received  in  the  same  light  or  position 


(14) 

as  the  shorthand  reporter  to  a  court.  He  is  simply  a 
machine  putting  down  in  symbols  representing  cer- 
tain vibratory  waves  of  motion  or  sound  that  which 
you  call  language,  and  is  not  responsible  for  the  truth 
or  philosophy  of  that  which  he  records.  ' 

The  impressional  writer  gets  his  information  in  the 
form  of  a  mental  or  illustrational  picture  of  those 
truths  or  facts  which  the  higher  spirit  intelligence 
wishes  to  convey  to  their  reporter  or  sensitive.  Here 
you  will  observe  that  somewhat  similar  laws  govern 
the  accuracy  of  both  reports ;  i.  e.,  if  the  court  report- 
er, for  instance,  should  be  slightly  indisposed  from 
various  physical  causes, — loss  of  sleep,  pressed  for 
money,  on  a  tear,  sickness,  etc., — he  may  be  slow  to 
catch  or  note  every  sound  called  language,  and  in 
his  anxiety  to  keep  up  with  his  work,  he  may  make  his 
notes  a  trifle  too  short;  then  when  he  comes  to  put  his 
notes  into  typewriting,  those  places  where  he  has 
"  foreshortened  "  his  already  shorthand,  he  is  com- 
pelled to  coin  his  own  language. 

Hence  you  will  be  generous  enough  to  allow  that 
the  impressional  writer,  being  physical,  must  of  ne- 
cessity be  subject  to  the  same  liabilities;  hence  the 
necessity  of  the  reader  using  extreme  care  in  receiv- 
ing any  and  all  so-called  spirit  communications, 
whether  in  inspirational  speaking,  clairvoyant  or  im- 
pressional writing, —  for  if  with  the  very  best  of  court 
reporters  errors  will  creep  in  while  receiving  the 


(15) 

words  themselves  on  the  auditory  nerve,  how  much 
more  difficult  must  it  be  for  a  sensitive  to  properly 
place  in  language  those  truths  conveyed  to  him 
through  impression?  Is  not  his  physical  body  subject 
to  the  same  errors  of  the  flesh?  The  fact  of  his  being 
a  sensitive  does  not  emancipate  him  from  these  er- 
rors of  inharmony  any  more  than  any  other  mortal. 

This  idea,  which  many  investigators  of  spirit  phe- 
nomena have,  that  because  John  Jones  is  a  medium, 
then  per  se,  he  is  a  sort  of  tin  god  on  wheels,  is  all  non- 
sense; for,  of  a  truth,  all  mortals  are  mediums, — 't  is 
only  a  question  of  degree,  the  same  as  reason  and  in- 
telligence. There  is  no  gulf  separating  the  least  from 
the  greatest, — merely  a  question  of  addition,  or  a 
uniting  of  the  units. 

Note :  By  the  above  explanation,  a  just  and  impar- 
tial critic  or  student  of  this  work,  we  hope,  will  un- 
derstand that  in  reading  a  report  of  any  work  on  the 
philosophy  of  metaphysics,  if  he  wishes  to  arrive  at 
the  spirit  of  the  communication,  he  should  not  take 
every  word  as  an  absolute  and  unalterable  statement 
of  all  the  essential  facts. 

As  every  individual  has  his  own  peculiar  manner  of 
arriving  at  conclusions  of  the  various  phenomena  as 
they  present  themselves  for  consideration,  yet,  after 
all  is  said,  the  abstract  question  is:  Does  this  road 
also  lead  to  Rome? 

One  of  the  objects  of  human  life,  as  we  understand 


(  16  ) 

it,  is  to  gather  wisdom  from  experience,  and,  as  one  of 
the  essentials  to  wisdom  is  time,  you  will  perceive 
that  it  requires  a  vast  deal  of  time  to  travel  all  of  the 
various  roads  to  Rome  before  you  are  enabled  to  ar- 
rive at  even  a  partially  correct  opinion  of  which  is  the 
most  advisable  road  to  follow ;  i.  e.,  which  of  the  vari- 
ous philosophical  statements  up  to  the  present  day 
makes  the  most  direct  appeal  to  common  sense  as  to 
the  abstract  truth  of  the  cause  of  causation. 

P.  S. — The  student  or  reader  of  this  little  book  will 
observe  that  we  have  frequently  written  in  the  first, 
second,  or  third  person.  The  best  explanation  that  I, 
the  amanuensis,  can  offer  is,  that  you,  the  reader, 
will  find,  as  you  advance  in  the  book,  that  Ptolemy 
cautioned  me  that  I  must  learn  to  separate  my 
thoughts  from  his.  As  I  told  him  at  the  time,  I  was 
afraid  that  was  easier  said  than  done.  1  find  in  look- 
ing over  the  work  that  I  was  pretty  nearly  correct,  and, 
therefore,  would  ask  the  reader  to  use  his  or  her  own 
judgment  in  the  matter,  for  now  I  have  about  finished 
the  work,  I  find  it  still  a  difiScult  thing  to  do.  As  it  is 
a  question  of  revolutionary  as  well  as  evolutionary 
truth  bearing  on  the  old  accepted  philosophy,  the 
question  of  who  is  writing  it  or  whether  all  the  con- 
ventional rules  of  writing  have  been  adhered  to  should 
cut  no  figure  as  to  the  abstract  truth  of  the  deductions 
here  advanced.       Yours  in  charity  of  thought, 

C.  H.  Foster. 


(17  ) 


PHILOSOPHY    VEKSUS     SCHOLASTIC 
THEOLOGY. 


To  the  student  we  wish  to  say,  that  in  beginning 
your  search  after  the  absolute  truth  of  the  cause 
of  causation,  we  think  that  3^ou  will  be  willing  to  ad- 
mit that  the  first  and  most  essential  consideration  on 
your  part  is  to  determine  whether  you  have  arrived 
at  that  condition  in  life  that  you  can  for  a  fact  declare 
that  your  mind,  conscience,  or  will  is  in  a  free  condi- 
tion, and  not  at  all  tinctured  or  influenced  by  either 
your  previous  teachings  or  fixed  opinions  to  such  an 
extent  as  would  debar  you  the  free  exercise  of  your 
five  natural  senses;  through  and  by  which  all  men  in 
their  individual  capacity  must,  if  free,  determine  for 
themselves  as  to  the  simple  truth  of  all  phenomena. 

If  this  be  the  fact,  it  would  appear  to  us  that,  in 
beginning  our  investigations,  the  first  move  should 
be  to  fully  inform  ourselves  as  to  the  difference  be- 
tween Theory  and  Facts,  Belief  and  Knowledge,  or 
the  hereditary  teachings  of  the  opinions  of  others,  or 
so-called  Faith,  and  the  facts  furnished  you  from  the 
experience  gained  through  the  evidence  of  your  own 
natural  senses  when  applied  to  the  subject  in  a 
rational  manner. 


(18  ) 

Hence  we  are  presumptuous  enough  to  hope  that 
the  student  will  pardon  us  when  we  say  that  this  is 
the  gulf  that  always  has  remained,  and  probably  ever 
will  remain,  as  an  impassable  barrier  between  Knowl- 
edge and  Belief,  Reason  and  Superstition,  or  common 
sense  and  scholasticism. 

In  order  that  the  student  may  be  enabled  to  in  a 
measure  judge  the  state  of  his  own  mind,  or  I  am,  as 
regards  to  whether  he  is  free,  we  will  lend  him  a  scale 
to  temporarily  measure  his  idea  of  freedom;  which 
scale  is :  Man  for  a  fact  knows  nothing. 

He  only  arrives  at  a  conception  of  what  appears  or 
seems  to  him  to  exist  as  a  truth  or  fact  by  the  applica- 
tion of  his  five  senses,  and  as  it  is  conceded  by  all  pro- 
found thinkers  that  no  two  individuals  arrive  at 
precisely  the  same  opinion, — i.  e.,  word  for  word, — 
in  describing  some  one  thing  which  they  have  wit- 
nessed at  the  same  moment  of  time,  then  this  of  itself 
is  sufficient  evidence  that  the  physical  senses  are  not 
absolute  evidence  of  truth. 

Hence  we  deduce  that  all  so-called  knowledge  is 
only  relative  seeming,  or  appearing  to  be  so.  For,  as 
all  is  ceaseless  motion,  then  all  is  ceaselessly  chan- 
ging,— i.  e.,  Thought,  Force,  and  Substance;  and  as 
thought  is  the  basis  of  knowledge,  it  follows,  that  that 
which  was  knowledge  at  one  second  has  changed  in 
the  next  second ;  which  would  place  it  only  relatively 
to  that  which  has  passed,  and  if  this  be  the  truth,  it 


(19) 

would  naturally  follow  that  human  existence  is  not  a 
real  but  a  relative  condition. 

This  is  the  philosopher's  scale  which  we  loan  to  you 
for  this  occasion,  the  reasonable  application  of  which 
depends  entirely  upon  your  own  unbiased  common 
sense. 


(20) 


CHAPTEK  I. 

THE  ATOM. 

As  the  foundation  of  this  work  is  based  upon  the 
atom,  it  is  permissible  for  us  to  inquire :  What  is  an 
atom?  And  as  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the 
reader  should  fully  and  clearly  comprehend  what  that 
atom  really  and  practically  is  in  all  its  various  con- 
ditions, positions,  and  compositions,  in  order  that  all 
visionary  or  chimerical  ideas  may  be  entirely  re- 
moved from  your  mind,  we  will  endeavor  to  give  you  a 
plain  and  simple  definition. 

First.  An  atom  is  that  single  piece  of  matter  that 
is  so  small  as  to  be  no  longer  susceptible  of  a  divi- 
sion into  more  than  one  part. 

Second.  It  is  the  beginning  or  birth  of  the  three 
dimensions  of  length,  breadth,  and  thickness,  and  the 
first  occupant  of  space,  or  the  unit  of  commensura- 
tion. 

You  will  first  understand  that  there  are  really  two 
classes  of  atoms.  The  first  atom  we  will  designate  the 
infinite  atom,  which  is  only  recognized  by  science  in  a 
conjectiu^al  sense  and  this  conjecture  is  from  the 
known  fact  that,  as  far  as  the  ingenuity  of  man  has 


(21  ) 

been  enabled  to  go,  either  in  chemistry  or  with  the 
most  powerful  microscope,  we  find  clear  and  abundant 
proof  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  mind  of  man  to  com- 
prehend a  last  division  of  matter ;  hence  we  are  com- 
pelled to  designate  it  as  the  Infinite  atom,  and  outside 
the  comprehension  of  man,  and,  being  such,  you  will 
perceive  it  would  be  a  useless  waste  of  time  for  man  to 
try  to  comprehend  that  which  is  incomprehensible. 

We  will  therefore  take  up  the  second  class  of  atoms, 
to  which,  in  this  work,  we  have  given  the  appellation 
of  the  ultimate  atom,  for  the  very  good  reason  that  it 
is  the  ultimate  limit  of  human  comprehension  of  the 
subdivision  of  matter.  We  will  first  define  this  atom 
as  a  Thing  which  is  the  very  next  akin  to  No  Thing, 
or  nothing,  and  just  barely  within  the  limit  of  com- 
prehension by  man  when  observed  in  the  accumulated 
form  of  countless  numbers,  such  as  the  so-called  tail 
of  a  comet,  the  light  of  the  sun,  or  the  most  minute 
microscopic  object.  No  human  being  ever  has  or  ever 
will  be  able  to  see  a  single  ultimate  atom,  even  when 
the  sense  of  sight  is  aided  by  the  most  powerful  micro- 
scope. Take,  for  instance,  the  smallest  object  on 
the  field  of  your  microscope;  in  order  to  see 
it  you  are  compelled  to  gather  together  count- 
less thousands  of  other  single  atoms  of  light, 
by  means  of  your  reflecting  mirror,  and  concen- 
trate them  on  the  object  in  order  to  aid  the  optic  nerve 
in  sensing  it ;  the  very  fact  of  your  being  able  to  see  it 


(  22  ) 

even  in  this  manner  is  practical  proof  that  it  is  again 
subject  to  division;  for,  in  your  mind,  you  can  con- 
ceive of  a  half  or  a  tenth  part  of  that  which  the  aided 
eye  beholds.  As  this  fact  proves  that  the  mind  of  man 
has  no  idea  of  the  amount  of  space  a  single  atom  oc- 
cupies, then  it  becomes  evident  that  no  man  can  say 
or  know  whether  this  microscopic  object  is  composed 
of  a  hundred,  a  thousand,  or  even  a  million  of  single 
atoms. 

You  will  also  bear  in  mind  that  sound  is  matter  in 
motion,  in  the  form  of  vibratory  waves.  Now,  try  to 
conceive  of  the  condition  of  that  matter  w^hen  set  in 
motion  by  the  wing  of  a  mosquito ;  or  take  atmospher- 
ic air,  which  is  a  composition  of  other  atoms, — if  you 
cannot  see  an  atom  of  air,  how  much  smaller  are  the 
atoms  of  oxygen  or  nitrogen  which  compose  the  air. 

As  the  atom  is  no  longer  subject  to  division,  it  be- 
comes the  only  Thing  which  you  can  truthfully  call  a 
SOLID  for  all  other  matter  would  be  composed  of 
more  than  one  atom  and,  as  the  atoms  when  in  groups 
of  two  or  more,  do  not  touch  each  other  but  have  a 
space  between  equal  to  their  own  diameter  (see  Physi- 
cal Chemistry),  then  it  is  a  self-evident  fact  that  no 
object  matter  can  be  solid. 

By  this  analysis  of  the  first,  or  undeveloped,  atom  of 
matter,  you  will  see  that  man  can  not  have  any  real 
knowledge  of  what  matter  is  composed  of;  we  are 
only  made  aware  of  its  actual  existence  after  it  has 


(23  ) 

passed  through  at  least  one,  if  not  several,  changes,  by 
its  joining  itself  to  another  atom.  In  this  work,  there- 
fore, we  designate  it  as  the  point  of  beginning  of  hu- 
man comprehension,  and  will  request  the  readers  to 
keep  this  fact  at  all  times  foremost  in  their  minds 
while  studying  the  various  positions  in  which  they 
will  be  called  upon  to  view  and  weigh  this  ATOM  in 
the  many  changes  we  shall  be  required  to  place  it  as 
we  advance  in  our  endeavors  to  unfold  to  you  the  many 
almost  insurmountable  difficulties  surrounding  the 
MYSTIC  TEMPLE  of  LIFE  and  the  ATOM. 

Which  w^as  constructed  from  the  FIRST  to  the 
LAST,  of  the  LEAST  and  the  GREATEST,  for  the 
BEGINNING  and  the  END. 

In  these  our  primary  remarks  we  use  the  term  atom 
of  matter;  but  as  the  student  advances  out  of  the  old 
orthodox  philosophy,  that  all  is  matter,  we  shall  en- 
deavor to  gradually  develop  the  understanding  as  to 
the  difference  between  matter  and  substance.  (See 
Chapter  XXXVI.) 

In  order  that  the  lay  mind  or  student  may  be  en- 
abled to  clearly  comprehend  the  vital  importance  of 
the  atom,  and  the  part  it  will  be  called  upon  to  play  in 
this  volume,  we  will  here  present  a  practical  illustra- 
tion by  taking  four  marbles  and  assume  that  eac- 
marble  represents  an  atom  and  that  each  atom  is  a 
point  in  space.  It  is  a  conceded  fact  that  a  point  has 
neither  length,  breadth,  nor  thickness. 


(  24  ) 

1^       Figure  1  represents  the  beginning  or  promise 
^^   of  mathematics  or  extension,  but  not  mathe- 
^'s-  ^  matics  or  extension  itself.     When  two  atoms 
come  together,  as  in  Figure  2,  we  have  the  birth  of 
one  of  the  three  dimensions  of  space, — i.  e. 
length  or  extension  only, — and  the  prom- 
ise of  a  form;  when  these  are  joined  by  a        ^^^•^• 
^^^^     third  atom,  as  in  Figure  3,  we  have  the 
iRflP     birth    of    the    second    dimension, — i.    e. 
V        breadth,  and  also  the  birth  of  form,  in  the 
Fig. 3.       form  of  a  triangle;   when  these  three  are 
joined  by  the  fourth  atom,  we  have  the  full 
birth  of  the  three  dimensions, — i.  e.  thick- 
ness,— as  shown  in  Figure  4.    This  is  the 
birth  of  a  body  or  a  body  of  physical       ^^^•^• 
matter.    This  is  the  first  appearance  of  a  molecule  of 
matter  composed  of  four  atoms  of  substance ;   it  now 
has  an  interior,  and  only  at  this  stage  is  it  for  the  first 
time  subject  to  involution  or  capable  of  receiving 
something  within  a  body  that  was  evolved  from  one 
atom,  the  only  one  thing  that  is  absolutely  solid  being 
no  longer  divisible.     ( See  Chapter  XXXIX. ) 

Ether,  or  spirit,  is  but  another  name  for  the  atoms 
of  substance  that  fill  all  space.  'T  is  often  called  a 
fluid,  and  is  so  mentioned  on  account  of  its  exceeding 
fineness,  which  allows  it  to  penetrate — or  perhaps  we 
might  say,  permeate — all  known  forms  or  so-called 
solids.     You  must  remember  that  up  to  the  present 


V 


(  25  ) 

date  the  extent  of  human  knowledge  as  to  the  number 
of  simple  substances  is  but  sixty-five,  which  is  but  a 
fractional  part  of  the  whole. 

The  peculiar  properties  of  the  various  substances 
that  are  yet  to  be  developed  by  the  onward  march  of 
evolution  and  harnessed  for  the  benefit  of  mankind, 
you  cannot  form  the  slightest  idea  of;  yet  you  are 
aware  from  a  backward  glance  that  additions  are  fre- 
quently being  made  to  the  number  known.  Some  phi- 
losophers are  inclined  to  draw  a  distinction  between 
this  ether  and  substance,  but  they  are  wrong;  for  if  it 
had  an  actual  existence  apart  from  atomic  substance, 
how  could  you  recognize  it?  What  would  be  its  func- 
tional relation  to  the  three  dimensions? 

As  we  advance  in  this  work  we  shall  endeavor  to 
show  you  that  the  position  this  ether  occupies  is  as 
an  atmosphere,  and  is  both  ponderable  and  imponder- 
able, but  substance  nevertheless,  and  is  the  source 
from  whence  all  forms  draw  their  supply  of  life,  force, 
intelligence,  and  material  to  build  from,  and  is  cease- 
lessly flowing  through  the  earth,  the  sea,  and  the  sky ; 
in  its  passage,  leaving  a  little  of  its  own  vitality  while 
removing  that  which  has  accomplished  its  object  in  the 
lower  form  of  expressed  life  to  a  higher  state  of  pro- 
gression. 

Were  it  possible  for  you  to  stand  in  space  ten  thou- 
sand miles  away  and  hold  up  in  your  hand  a  cambric 
needle,  the  extreme  point  of  this  needle  would  touch 


(  26  ) 

thousands  of  single  atoms  at  the  same  instant,  and 
each  atom  would  be  in  possession  of  its  proportional 
share  of  life,  force,  and  intelligence. 

In  order  that  you  may  form  some  idea  of  how  it  is 
possible  for  the  various  atomic  substances — i.  e.  pro- 
gressed and  unprogressed,  ponderable  and  imponder- 
able— to  work  out  each  its  own  destiny  in,  around,  and 
about  the  earth,  without  coming  into  serious  conflict 
with  its  neighbor,  though  operating  in  a  complete  vor- 
tex whirl,  we  will  illustrate  it  in  this  manner:  By 
giving  you  an  Argus  eye,  we  will  place  you  in  a  posi- 
tion over  the  city  of  New  York  and  allow  you  to  behold 
every  individual  in  that  city  at  precisely  th«  same 
moment,  say  three  o'clock  p.  m.^  and  their  occupations 
let  the  time.  Here  you  will  observe  generosity  and 
avarice,  the  sick  and  well,  rich  and  poor,  the  idiotic 
and  the  philosopher ;  in  fact,  you  will  find  red  spirits 
and  white,  black  spirits  and  gray,  mingle,  mingle, 
mingle,  you  who  mingle  may.  Each  individual  ap- 
parently with  but  one  idea  and  object, — i.  e.  the  world 
was  made  expressly  for  ME  and  the  balance  of  human- 
ity. 

Would  not  this  picture  represent  a  complete  vortex, 
and,  though  each  single  individual  ( or  atom )  appears 
to  be  solely  concerned  with  his  own  personal  affairs, 
yet  there  is  a  law  or  influence  flowing  through,  regu- 
lating and  governing  the  whole  mass. 


(27  ) 
CHAPTER  II. 

FIRST  IMPRESSION. 

What  is  Truth  ? — But  three  Eternal  Facts  —  Birth 
of  the   World. 

Alameda,  January  5,  1894. 

After  about  three  years  of  investigation  of  what  is 
called  spirit  return,  I  am  impressed  to  write  the  con- 
clusions I  have  so  far  come  to  up  to  the  present  date, 
believing  that  I  will  get  other  facts  from  time  to  time, 
as  I  advance  into  that  sensitive  condition,  that  may 
change  some  of  my  present  deductions. 

I  began  by  spending  about  one  thousand  dollars  in 
the  space  of  six  months  for  private  and  public  sittings 
with  Mrs.  Helen  Fair  child  for  the  purpose  of  positive- 
ly assuring  myself  of  the  fact  of  full  form  Materializa- 
tion, Trumpet  Voices,  Materialized  Voices,  Independ- 
ent Writing,  Clairvoyance,  etc.,  which  I  soon  found  to 
be  an  absolute  fact.  Then  commenced  within  me  an 
uncontrollable  desire  to  know  the  mysterious  law  or 
process  by  which  it  was  done.  During  my  sittings 
with  Mrs.  Fairchild,  there  came  to  me  many  spirits 
who,  from  their  conversations  and  general  appear- 
ances, seemed  to  me  to  be  those  whom  they  repre- 


(28) 

sented  themselves  to  be.  One  of  these  in  particular, 
I  wish  to  say,  gave  me  the  name  of  Ptolemy  Philadel- 
phus,  the  second  of  the  reign  of  the  Ptolemies  in 
Egypt,  who  was  able  to  give  me  much  assistance  and 
information  necessary  for  me  to  have  in  order  to  ar- 
rive at  a  proper  understanding  of  the  different  bear- 
ings or  relations  each  part  of  this  wonderful  truth 
bore  to  the  whole  o-r  part  of  the  whole.  At  the  end  of 
about  two  years  I  found,  by  following  his  instructions, 
that,  at  times,  I  could  bring  myself  into  some  kind  of 
a  rapport  with  an  intelligence  (and  that  is  the  only 
word  that  will  truthfully  express  it)  that  would  clear- 
ly, practically,  and  scientifically  explain  many  of  the 
phenomena  that  I  have  witnessed.  And  I  wish  the 
reader  of  this  to  understand  that  the  intelligence  or 
information  was  not  given  in  any  language  contain- 
ing words.  This  will  make  it  difficult  for  me  to  put 
it  into  words,  as  I  may,  from  time  to  time,  have  to  coin 
or  invent  a  word  to  practically  convey  my  meaning. 

Here  again  I  wish  particularly  to  notify  the  reader 
of  several  facts  which  are  absolutely  necessary  for 
their  proper  guidance  in  forming  their  opinion  of  such 
of  the  laws  and  facts  as  to  what  is  the  simple  truth 
and  what  is  only  belief. 


(29) 
WHAT  IS  TRUTH? 

First,  when  I  speak  of  what  I  knoiv^  I  do  so  fully 
realizing  the  meaning  of  the  Avord, — i.  e.  that  one  or 
all  of  my  five  or  six  senses  as  can  be  brought  to  bear 
on  the  matter  under  investigation  by  me  in  my  normal 
state  of  mind  has  been  so  applied  as  free  from  a  priori 
opinion  as  an  ordinary  mortal  is  usually  expected  to 
be  on  a  witness-stand.  Hereafter,  throughout  this 
book,  when  I  say  I  know  I  wish  to  be  understood  as 
having  applied  the  above  senses  and  when  I  say  I  be- 
lieve or  conclude,  I  only  mean  that  I  draw  my  deduc- 
tions from  what  I  know.  The  reader,  in  order  to  do 
justice  to  himself  or  herself  (and  the  sought-for 
truth),  should  hold  their  opinion  in  check  until  they 
have  finished  the  reading  of  this  work  to  its  end ;  for 
only  one  who  is  capable  of  so  doing  is  at  all  qualified 
to  sit  in  a  jury-box  and  act  as  a  just  judge  of  the  Truth 
on  any  matter,  and  particularly  so  on  the  fact  of  a 
sixth  sense  or  the  facts  and  fallacies  of  spirit  return. 

BUT  THREE  ETERNAL  FACTS. 

And  now  as  to  what  I  know.  I  know  that  there  are 
but  three  eternal  facts  which  are:  Life,  Matter,  and 
Space, — and  so  does  all  the  human  family,  yourself  in- 
cluded. Life  could  not  make  itself  manifest  without 
matter  and  space;    matter  could  not  exist  without 


(  30  ) 

life  and  space,  and  is  but  the  expression  of  life;  and 
all  three  facts  are  each  and  all  beyond  human  ( and,  I 
believe,  spirit)  comprehension.  Now,  let  us  see  what 
we  know  in  regard  to  these  three  things.  All  men 
of  ordinary  intelligence  will  admit  that  life  produces 
energy,  energy  produces  force,  force  produces  motion, 
and  motion  produces  change,  Avhich  is  ceaseless.  All 
this  tends  to  establish  the  grand  law  of  evolution. 


BIRTH  OF  THE  WORLD. 

We  know  again  that  matter  is  divided  into  two 
parts — ponderable  and  imponderable.  While  we  ac- 
knowledge our  inability  to  comprehend  infinite  mat- 
ter, let  us  begin  at  that  point  of  matter  where  human 
comprehension  is  supposed  to  begin, — the  microcosm 
or  atom  of  imponderable  matter,  such  as  light,  heat, 
magnetism,  etc., — and  proceed  to  build  a  world.  Now, 
there  being  no  such  thing  as  a  vacuum  or  a  space  not 
containing  anything  (matter),  then  it  follows  that 
space,  the  third  known  fact,  is  filled  with  the  ultimate 
atoms  of  imponderable  matter,  and,  as  each  atom  has 
atomic  life,  there  we  have  the  corner-stone  of  our  pro- 
posed world,  for  in  that  live  atom  we  find  our  first 
fundamental  principles — force,  motion,  and  change. 

Now,  we  find  motion  also  produces  friction,  friction 
produces  electricity,  and  electricity  produces  magne- 
tism, and  by  this  known  fact  of  magnetism  we  produce 


(  31  ) 

attraction.  And  now  we  will  lay  this  corner-stone  of 
our  proposed  world  by  attracting  one  atom  to  another 
until  we  have  an  embryo  world  in  the  form  of  a  gas- 
eous body  similar  to,  if  not  actually,  a  comet's  tail, 
composed  of  atoms  so  attenuated  that  a  mass  of  them 
ten  thousand  miles  thick  does  not  obstruct  the  human 
vision  from  the  stars  beyond.  And  so,  behold,  we  have 
an  accouchement, — behold  the  new-born  world !  And, 
strange  to  observe,  not  once  have  we  been  called  on  to 
create  something  out  of  nothing,  but  simply  have  ap- 
plied the  known  truths  of  evolution. 

And  now,  after  having  assumed  the  responsibility 
of  projecting  this  new-born  world  into  the  eternal  fam- 
ily of  accumulated  life,  we  deem  it  incumbent  upon  us 
to  provide  a  suitable  nurse,  to  whom  we  will  give  the 
name  of  Soul.  She,  we  find,  is  superior  to  matter  in 
the  unit  or  single  ultimate,  although  only  produced  by 
that  affinity  which  in  itself  is  first  produced  by  the 
joining  of  the  first  two  atoms,  understood  as  positive 
and  negative;  they,  the  first  positive  and  negative, 
being  the  Father  and  Mother  of  what  we  of  the  earth 
life  understand  as  electro-magnetic  attraction.  Now 
we  instruct  the  nurse  that  the  Soul,  being  superior  to 
matter  or  next  above  in  degree  toward  what  we  call 
God  or  Over- Soul,  we  seat  her  over  these  two  atoms, 
telling  her  one  known  truth:  First,  that  she  is  and 
here  represents  that  mystic  symbol  known  in  the 
brotherhood  of  the  Mystic  Circle  as  the  BEGINNING 


(32) 

and  the  END,  where  the  FIRST  shall  be  LAST  and 
the  LAST  shall  be  FIRST. 

And  now  we  give  unto  this  nurse  her  first  instruc- 
tions :  We  give  unto  thee  as  a  tried  and  trusted  mem- 
ber of  our  Brotherhood  of  spheres  (worlds)  all 
sufficient  power  to  reach  out  and  gather  in  a 
sufficient  number  of  atoms,  or  world-food,  through  the 
influence  of  the  positive  and  negative  law  to  nourish 
this  infant  world;  be  ye  careful  at  the  same  time  to 
infuse  into  its  corporate  life  those  Mystic  attributes 
of  which  you  have  been  given  a  knowledge:  to  wit, 
Love,  Truth,  and  Charity,  for  thus  we  Involve  to  be 
again  Evolved,  round  and  round,  on  and  on  and  on, 
until  your  work  as  an  object  world  shall  have  been 
finished,  when  you,  in  turn,  shall  place  the  labor  of 
your  Earth  Life  into  the  hands  of  those  of  the  next 
in  degree,  which  is  Spirit  Life,  there  to  begin  again  a 
cycle  at  the  threshold  of  a  higher  comprehension. 


(33) 


CHAPTER  III. 

SPIRIT  LIFE. 

No  such  thing  as  tim^e — Atom  life  and  the  sixth 
sense — Investigating  ^phenomena, 

NO  SUCH  THING  AS  TIME. 

Before  we  begin  this  subject  it  is  necessary  to  un- 
derstand one  fact:  that,  in  our  endeavor  to  arrive  at 
a  correct  solution  of  the  phenomena  now  occurring 
throughout  the  world,  it  will  be  necessary  for  the 
reader  to  bear  one  fact  in  mind, — i.  e.  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  time.  Time  is  only  a  man-made  rule  or 
gauge  to  measure  events  by,  for,  in  the  vast  field  of 
eternity  to  recognize  time  is  to  recognize  a  beginning 
which  often  proves  a  will-o'-the-wisp  to  confuse  and 
mislead  the  student.  However,  we  may  occasionally 
be  required  to  use  it  as  a  comparison,  that  you  may 
more  readily  grasp  our  meaning;  therefore  we  will 
class  it  as  the  godfather  of  Evolution,  at  least  as  far 
as  this  and  the  spirit  world  is  concerned.  And,  if  in 
this  work  we  shall  succeed  in  solving  the  riddle  of 
these  two  worlds,  the  ponderable  and  the  imponder- 


(  34  ) 

able  (spirit)  world,  I  think  we  will  find  the  atmos- 
phere sufficiently  cleared  thereby  to  give  us  at  least 
a  beautiful  dream  of  the  home  of  the  Soul. 


ATOM   LIFE. 

Atom  Life,  Object  or  Physical  Life,  and  Soul  Life. 

All  atoms  are  either  positive  or  negative.  When 
the  first  two  atoms  of  any  object  life  come  together  by 
attraction  we  have  the  first  stage  of  embryo  life,  and 
right  there  begins  our  time  and  also  the  first  appear- 
ance and  comprehension  of  electro-magnetic  attrac- 
tion, from  out  of  the  mysteries  of  those  three  known 
truths.  Life,  flatter,  and  Space.  What  mind  can  com- 
prehend the  size  of  these  atoms  when  brought  together 
as  one  united  whole;  yet  that  is  also  a  fact.  Now, 
throughout  the  mass  of  the  united  whole,  is  ceaselessly 
passing  a  life  principle.  Let  us,  for  the  purpose  of  a 
partial  comprehension,  call  this  over-life  the  over-soul 
infiuence,  or  God ;  't  is  but  a  name,  a  handle,  a  con- 
venience to  truth. 

The  same  law  that  caused  two  atoms  to  come  togeth- 
er will  cause  any  number  to  come  together.  Now, 
when,  as  before  mentioned,  the  positive  and  negative 
meet,  there  we  first  establish  a  current.  Bear  in  mind 
that  I  do  not  mean  to  assert  that  this  is  the  same  kind 
of  electro-magnetism  in  every-day  use  for  mercantile 
purposes,  but  something  similar  in  its  operation.    It 


(35) 

is  that  super-sensitive  magnetism  that  is  the  real 
connecting-link  that  binds  this  ponderable,  or  object 
matter,  with  the  imponderable,  or  spirit  world,  and 
where  it  is  necessary  to  have  a  battery  called  a  sensi- 
tive, or  medium.  This  link  is  best  understood  as  a 
sixth  sense,  and  can  be  developed  in  any  human  being 
to  a  more  or  less  degree  and,  as  we  know^  that  there  are 
no  two  things  alike,  then  it  follows  that  no  two  medi- 
ums are  alike. 

INVESTTGATING  PHENOMENA 

To  properly  investigate  these  i)henomena  one  should 
distinctly  understand  that  spirits  are  really  but  man 
after  all,  only  in  a  sublimated  state  or  condition ;  they 
are  subject  to  all  the  errors  and  many  of  the  mistakes 
of  man,  and  when  you  come  to  consider  that  they  have 
to  voice  such  truths  as  they  may  have  gathered  in  their 
new  condition,  through  a  medium,  that  they  still  are 
laboring  under  a  very  grave  difficulty  in  having  only 
a  physical  man  brought  to  that  super-sensitive  condi- 
tion and  only  to  that  fineness  that  the  medium's  own 
organism  will  admit.  As  there  are  no  two  organisms 
or  sole  conditions  alike,  either  on  the  earth  or  on  the 
spirit  plane,  then  it  stands  to  reason  that  the  one  who 
wishes  to  know  or  to  be  able  to  draw  as  near  the  Truth 
as  possible  should  go  to,  say  not  less  than  twenty  medi- 
ums.   Let  these  mediums  have  their  own  way  entirely. 


(  86  ) 

Do  not,  under  any  circumstances,  let  them  know  what 
your  object  is.  Talk  but  little  nor  give  them  any  clew 
to  work  on,  for  the  medium's  control  can  sense  what 
is  on  your  mind  when  the  conditions  are  favorable 
for  so  doing.  Keep  your  mind  in  as  negative  a  condi- 
tion as  you  possibly  can.  Be  kind  and  gentle  to  the 
medium,  let  your  opinion  of  the  medium  be  what  it 
may.  For  you  must  remember  that  to  be  a  good  in- 
strument is  to  be  able  to  throw  yourself  into  a  highly 
nervous  or  sensitive  condition.  This  I  absolutely 
know  from  my  own  feelings.  Now,  after  having  sat 
privately  with  twenty  or  more,  then  sum  up,  as  it  were, 
the  general  results,  and,  if  you  know  how,  divide  % 
twenty,  and  you  arrive  at  a  generally  correct  idea. 


(37  ) 


CHAPTER  IV. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  SIXTH  SENSE. 

Growth  of  the   World  —  Birth  of  the  Spirit  World. 

Speaking  from  my  own  experience,  as  regards  the 
development  of  the  sixth  sense,  I  must  admit  that  all 
the  way  through  the  last  four  years  it  has  been  one 
agreeable  surprise  after  another  in  finding  all  rules, 
regulations,  laws,  and  advice  as  laid  down  by  the  dif- 
ferent wiseacres  entirely  different  from  what  I  had 
expected  to  find  them,  which  has  about  convinced  me 
that  every  person  has  a  different  life- aura,  or  magne- 
tism,— ^just  as  different  as  one  man's  countenance  is 
from  another's;  and  every  one  that  sits  to  develop 
this  sixth  sense  will  find  it  out  as  they  advance,  and 
not  before.  And  here  let  me  say  that  it  being  a  super- 
magnetic  force  or  law,  you  will  find  that  it  is  a  physi- 
cal or  practical  fact  that  like  attracts  like.  Hence  the 
law  of  the  gold  atom  attracting  gold,  iron  attracting 
iron,  apple  attracting  apple,  rose  attracting  rose,  etc. 

Where  do  you  suppose  the  millions  of  atoms  come 
from  that  go  to  build  the  object  life  called  an  apple? 
Do  you  say  as  of  old,  "  Oh,  the  mysteries  of  God  are 


(38) 

past  finding  out ''?  Then  burn  this  book  and  live  on 
in  ignorance.  I  say  this  super-sensitive  magnetism 
that  holds  or  draws  the  ultimates  of  matter  together, 
being  governed  by  that  particular  object  life  of  the 
ajjple,  which  object  life  is  again  governed  by  the  over- 
soul  or  life  of  our  world  as  a  whole  world,  said  world 
again  being  governed  by  the  infinite  life  which  flows 
through  and  penetrates  every  spot  of  unknown  eter- 
nity, which  I  call  the  over-soul  of  life. 

Do  not  be  in  a  hurry  at  this  point,  my  dear  reader, 
but  take  a  retrospective  view  from  this  point  back- 
ward, step  by  step,  in  the  regular  known  order  of  such 
of  the  established  laws  of  Evolution  as  have  already 
been  acknowledged  by  your  most  enlightened  minds, 
and  note  with  care  how  all  the  various  degrees  of 
change  have  taken  place,  from  the  first  point  of  man's 
comprehension,  from  the  ultimate  atom,  to  the  second 
change  in  evolution,  which  is  the  invisible  or  magnetic 
body. 

GROWTH  OF  THE  WORLD. 

Next,  we  have,  when  a  sufficient  bulk  of  these  atoms 
is  drawn  together, — say,  for  the  purpose  of  compre- 
hension, a  sphere  of  one  million  miles  in  diameter, — 
there,  in  the  very  center,  reason  teaches  us,  will  be  the 
greatest  density,  when  we  have  the  third  change  in 
evolution ;  for  this  pressure,  however  slight  at  the  sur- 
face of  this  sphere,  is  of  sufficient  force  to  produce 


(39  ) 

luminosity  at  the  center,  the  attraction  being  toward 
the  center.  After  the  fullness  of  time,  or  a  period 
which  may  be  aeons  of  ages,  with  the  assistance  of  the 
life  force  permeating  through  the  whole  mass,  it  takes 
on  the  fourth  change  of  a  fluid  condition,  a  liquid, 
purifying  fire,  changing  the  whole  into  one  homogen- 
eous mass.  This  immense  heat  drives  off  that  impon- 
derable matter  (it  is  the  only  name  at  this  stage  that 
I  can  find  for  it),  such  as  steam,  atmospheric  and 
other  gases,  while  the  heated  sphere,  together  with  its 
outer  environments,  air,  etc.,  throws  off  still  another 
matter,  which  is  about  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
change,  for  at  this  point  in  evolution  a  very  important 
factor  is  introduced  or  produced,  to  wit.  The  Spirit 
World. 

BIRTH  OF  THE  SPIRIT  V^ORLD. 

which  is  that  part  of  the  first  or  primeval  matter  that 
has  passed  through  the  fire  of,  let  us  say,  purification, 
and  is  the  beginning  of  that  mystic  circle  known  to  the 
highly  sensitized  organism  as  the  spirit  world,  and 
from  this  stage  on  constant  additions  are  being  made 
to  it  from  spirit  emanations  of  imponderable  matter 
from  this  lower  or  ponderable  world  as  they  reach 
their  several  stages  of  the  highest  possible  earth  de- 
velopment or  unfoldment.  This  spirit  sphere  is  gath- 
ered around  the  earth  planet  in  something  the  same 
manner  as  heat  is  thrown  off  from  a  red-hot  cannoi 


(40) 

ball,  i.  e.  the  last  and  densest  emanations  being  next 
the  surface  of  our  earth. 

Now  while  these  imponderable  atoms  have  reached 
their  highest  unfoldment  as  ponderable  or  earth  mat- 
ter, the  dross  is  thrown  back  into  the  mills  of  the  gods 
(Earth)  their  impurities  there  to  be  ground  over  and 
over  by  the  forces  of  evolution  until  they,  in  their  turn, 
become  spiritualized. 

Here  let  the  reader  understand  that  the  spirit  world 
is  a  real  world  or  sphere,  and  is  a  part  and  parcel  or 
continuation  of  our  world,  even  the  trees  and  fruit, 
rivers  and  lakes,  etc.,  only  they  are  in  an  imponderable 
condition  where  the  spirit  of  matter  is  still  working 
out  higher  and  grander  unfoldment  through  higher 
stages  of  this  object  life,  but  constantly  moving  on- 
ward to  the  unknown  home  of  the  soul. 

While  I  call  the  spirit  sphere  imponderable,  I  use 
the  word  in  our  worldly  or  chemical  sense;  for  while 
it  is  invisible  to  the  undeveloped  human  eye,  it  has  in 
many  well-authenticated  cases  been  clearly  proven 
that  clairvoyance,  slate- writing,  mesmerism,  material- 
ization, the  most  convincing  of  all  the  phenomena,  are 
established  facts,  and,  as  I  said  in  the  first  part  of  this 
book,  I  have  had  several  phases  of  these  phenomena  in 
my  own  room  with  not  a  soul  present  but  myself. 


(41) 


CHAPTER  V. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  A  MEDIUM. 

Spirit  Hypnotism. 

Those  spirits  who  have  lately  passed  from  earth 
life  have  just  entered  the  lower  sphere  or  condition  of 
the  spirit;  hence  their  magnetism  or  attraction 
reaches  the  nearest  to  us  of  the  earth.  By  sitting,  say, 
every  third  or  fourth  day,  in  a  semi-darkened  room  (a 
cabinet  is  better),  and,  by  practice,  learning  to  keep 
yourself  in  as  negative  a.  condition  as  possible,  you 
thereby  raise  the  quality  of  your  magnetism.  Here 
understand,  by  the  same  ever-present  law,  that  as  like 
attracts  like  in  the  object  life,  such  as  apple  to  apple, 
rose  to  rose,  etc.;  here  steps  in  a  more  pronounced 
condition, — good  to  good,  bad  to  bad,  etc.  This  will 
be  more  readily  understood  when  you  consider  that  on 
the  spirit  side  is  found  the  lowest  spirit  magnetic 
aura  which  links  the  ponderable  with  the  imponder- 
able. 

Here  again  let  the  reader  understand  in  beginning 
your  search  after  these  mystic  truths  that  just  such 
thoughts  as  are  cultivated  in  your  innermost  spirit  or 


(  42  ) 

soul,  just  such  spirits  do  you  attract  as  your  band  (or 
battery)  on  the  other  side;  for  as  a  man  thinks  so  he 
is.  Your  own  common  reason  will  tell  you  that. 
They,  your  band  of  spirit  controls,  will  in  like  manner, 
by  the  same  law,  attract  or  reflect  the  voices  of  intelli- 
gences next  in  degree  above  them.  Therefore,  in  be- 
ginning your  sittings  cultivate  the  highest  aspirations. 

Do  not  by  any  means  let  the  idea  run  away  with  you 
that  the  spirits  will  make  you  one  particle  better. 
You  must  live  your  own  life  and  know  that  you  must 
o  to  knowledge,  for  knowledge  will  not  come  to  you, 
either  here  or  in  the  spirit  world.  The  development 
of  this  sixth  sense  does  not  add  materially  to  your 
knowledge,  such  as  telling  fortunes  and  such  non- 
sense; but  it  merely  acts  as  a  sort  of  illumination 
or  quickening  of  your  ordinary  senses,  and  it  also  is 
a  kind  of  king  over  one  or  all  of  your  five  senses  for  a 
short  time,  generally  from  one  to  two  hours,  such  as 
wholly  or  partial  entrancement,  etc. 

As  a  further  evidence  of  like  to  like,  go  to  four  me- 
diums, and  get  a  communication,  if  possible,  on  the 
same  business  matter.  You  will  find  three  times  out 
of  four  that  the  answers,  which  may  be  correct,  are 
nevertheless  all  tinctured  with  the  style  and  charac- 
teristics of  the  medium,  or  sensitive.  Not  but  what 
the  medium  is  perfectly  honest,  for  I  have  given  them 
questions  which  I  had  every  reason  in  the  world  to  be- 
lieve they  did  not  know,  either  the  question  or  the  an- 


(  43  ) 

swer;  yet  they  were  answered  correctly.  But  had  I 
asked  the  medium  some  such  question  as  an 
ordinary  friend  would  ask  while  in  a  normal 
condition,  the  answer  would  be  in  their  own 
personal  phraseology.  Therefore,  always  keep  one 
thing  in  mind  when  interviewing  the  spirits  through 
any  medium's  forces, — that  the  tone  of  the  light  which 
you  receive  in  the  room  is  always  depending  on  the 
color  of  the  glass  (medium)  through  which  it  is 
passed.  Always  use  your  own  judgment,  and  weigh 
carefully  any  communication  that  you  may  receive, 
for  strange  spirits  can  and  do  come  and  represent 
themselves  as  your  own  friends,  and  it  is  almost  im- 
possible for  you  to  tell  the  difference.  My  spirit  band 
has  frequently  cautioned  me  on  this  point.  This 
false  personation  is  to-day  the  most  deplorable  fact 
that  the  investigator  has  to  contend  with,  and  what 
makes  this  fact  still  more  unfortunate  is,  there  are 
always  to  be  found  among  the  ranks  of  spiritualists 
many  weak-minded  and  foolish  people,  as  in  every 
other  walk  of  life,  ever  ready  to  swallow  anything 
that  may  be  told  them,  provided  they  think  it  comes 
from  a  spirit.  This  is  all  caused  from  such  people 
being  too  ignorant  to  look  below  the  surface  of  the 
mere  mechanical  or  chemical  phenomena,  and  so  being 
unable  to  separate  the  dross  from  the  pure  metal. 


(44) 
SPIRIT    HYPNOTISM. 

Spirit  mediums  are  often  used  by  their  band  to  in- 
fluence, or,  in  a  manner,  to  hypnotize,  a  person  into 
giving  them  (the  mediums)  money,  jewels,  and  other 
property,  sometimes  leading  the  sitter  to  believe  that 
they  are  giving  to  the  spirits;  and  yet  the  mediums, 
in  a  large  measure,  may  not  be  to  blame.  The  me- 
dium, being  the  battery  on  this  side  and  their  spirit 
band  the  battery  on  the  other  side,  brings  the  two 
batteries  into  direct  harmony. 

Now,  while  mediums  are  in  their  normal  condition 
they  are  like  any  one  else.  They  see  a  fine  ring  on 
your  finger  or  a  beautiful  jewel  in  your  necktie,  and 
the  medium,  being  human,  in  her  soul  thinks :  "  How 
I  wish  that  were  mine,"  and,  from  day  to  day  it  grows 
on  her  mind;  then,  when  she  goes  under  the  control 
of  her  band,  they  (the  band)  take  on  that  wish  or  con- 
dition and  voice  the  mind  of  the  medium  to  the  sitter, 
often  personating  your  friends  and  telling  you  that  it 
will  benefit  you  in  many  ways  if  you  will  give  it  to 
them  (through  the  medium,  of  course),  making  you 
all  sorts  of  absurd  promises  to  gain  their  ends, — and 
they  have  a  very  winsome  way  oftentimes  in  doing  it, 
more  especially  if  the  sitter  should  be  more  or  less  a 
negative  to  hypnotism,  which  is  only  a  branch  law  of 
spirit  control.  Witness  the  case  of  Lawyer  Marsh  and 
Madame  Des  Be  Bar,  of  New  York ;  Mrs.  Lemond  and 


(  45  ) 

Mary  Smith,  of  Alameda,  Cal. ;  Mrs.  Martin,  of  Oak- 
land, Cal.,  and  many  others.  This  should  convince  you 
that  while  a  man  may  be  perfectly  clear  and  level- 
headed in  ordinary  business  matters,  these  occult  laws 
must  be  handled  with  a  cool  and  careful  judgment. 

I  will  recite  a  case  of  my  own  of  a  medium  with 
whom  I  was  well  acquainted.  While  she  was  en- 
tranced ( and  it  was  no  sham  entrancement,  for  it  was 
during  a  materializing  seance)  the  medium's  control 
begged  me  to  buy  her  medium  a  fine  ring  she  had  seen 
in  a  showcase.  I  told  her  no,  that  I  had  no  money  to 
waste  on  rings.  She  kept  up  her  importunities  for 
two  or  three  days,  and  when  she  found  that  I  was  not 
to  be  gulled  in  that  way  she  begged  me  not  to  mention 
the  matter  to  her  medium  when  she  came  out  of  her 
trance.  Now,  while  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  desire 
to  possess  the  ring  was  on  the  medium's  mind,  nothing 
could  have  induced  her  to  even  hint  of  such  a  thing  to 
me. 

Again,  these  spirit  bands  will  play  on  a  weak  mind 
for  years  to  work  them  up  to  giving  and  willing  prop- 
erty to  their  mediums.  Ask  any  medium's  control, 
and  they  will  tell  you  that  they  are  more  attached  to 
their  medium  than  a  mother  is  to  her  own  child  and 
think  more  of  her,  and  the  medium  will  give  you  the 
same  answer  as  regards  her  affection  for  her  band. 
How  could  it  possibly  be  otherwise?  And  yet  medi- 
ums often  have  disagreements  with  their  bands,  and 


(  46  ) 

refuse  to  be  governed  by  them  at  all  times  in  local  mat- 
ters. Such  mediums,  however,  who  have  done  so  and 
with  whom  I  have  conversed  on  the  matter  have 
always  said  that  they  were  sorry  for  it  afterwards,  as 
time  proved  in  the  end  that  their  band  was  right. 

Grant  me  your  patience  for  one  or  two  more  in- 
stances on  the  above  facts  of  the  media  and  their  bands 
being  almost  as  inseparable  as  one  thought  and  one 
mind.  On  one  occasion,  while  pursuing  my  investiga- 
tions through  the  mediumship  of  Mrs.  Helen  Fair- 
child,  Forest  Queen,  her  Indian  control  (and  she  was 
almost  a  perfect  control),  said  to  me:  "Mr.  Foster, 
don't  they  have  lots  of  pretty  things  at  the  big  store 
on  the  corner?"  meaning  O'Brien's  large  dry-goods 
store  on  the  corner  of  Market  and  McAllister  Streets, 
San  Francisco.  "  I  often  try  to  influence  my  medium 
to  go  there  just  to  see  the  things.  Don't  you  know, 
yesterday  we  were  in  there,  and  I  made  her  buy  two 
or  three  yards  of  beautiful  red  silk,  and  when  she  came 
home  and  opened  her  packages  and  saw  it  she  did  not 
know  what  in  the  world  she  bought  it  for."  "  Why," 
I  asked  Queen,  "  cannot  you  go  there  by  yourself  and 
enjoy  the  sights?  "  She  answered,  "  No,  not  without 
my  medium's  eyes  to  see  Avith,  the  same  as  I  have  to 
have  her  mouth  to  talk  with.  Don't  you  know,  when 
I.  was  eating  the  candy  you  gave  me  with  my  medium's 
mouth,  that  you  smelled  its  flavor  on  your  Sylvia's 
breath  w^hile  she  was  talking  to  you?  "    I  answered, 


(47) 

"  Yes."  ''  Well,  it  is  just  the  same,  we  could  not  do 
anything  without  our  medium's  organism  for  a  bat- 
tery." 

Again  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  my  guide,  in  some  of 
his  instructions  to  me  told  me  I  must  learn  to  separate 
their  (my  band's)  thoughts  from  mine  whenever  I  got 
impressions  from  them,  for,  as  I  got  the  flavor  of  the 
candy  the  control  was  eating  from  the  breath  of  spirit 
Sylvia,  who  Avas  at  that  time  conversing  with  me  in 
full  form  materialization  while  the  medium  under 
control  of  Forest  Queen  was  sitting  in  full  view  in  the 
further  corner  of  the  roomy  just  so  would  I  become  a 
part  of  their  thoughts  and  they  a  part  of  mine. 

At  another  time  I  wrote  some  eight  or  ten  questions 
on  a  long  strip  of  paper,  and  folded  and  sealed  it  care- 
fully. Some  of  the  questions  I  intended  as  test  ques- 
tions; i.  e.  directed  to  friends  not  dead.  Other  ques- 
tions were  on  a  matter  of  patent  papers  which  would 
lead  the  spirits  to  believe  that  the  Patent  Office  had 
not  yet  decided  on  them,  but  of  which  I  knew  the  con- 
trary. This  was  through  the  mediumship  of  Dr. 
Mansfield,  better  known  as  "  The  Spirit  Postmaster." 
This  sealed  paper  never  left  my  sight.  He  laid  the  pel- 
let on  the  table  before  him  and  commenced  to  tap  it 
with  his  ^nger,  at  the  same  time  writing  the  answer. 
Well,  it  proved  to  me  one  thing  that  I  was  fishing  foi;, 
namely,  the  spirit  force  or  sixth  sense  in  Mansfield  en- 
abled him  to  read  the  writing  by  a  sort  of  clairvoy- 


(48) 

ance,  but  he  or  a  personating  control  wrote  the 
answer,  as  in  every  case  the  trap  caught,  which  shows 
the  necessity  of  being  very  careful  in  your  investiga- 
tions. 

And  now  for  one  other  case — the  opposite.  I  wrote 
on  a  piece  of  paper  five  different  questions  to  five  dif- 
ferent spirit  friends,  among  them  my  father,  whose 
signature  I  know  well.  This  was  in  Alameda.  I  took 
them,  folded  lightly,  to  Fred  Evans  in  San  Francisco. 
I  had  them  in  my  vest-pocket.  I  asked  him  if  he  could 
get  me  an  answer,  and  he  replied  that  he  would  try. 
He  placed  five  clean  slates  on  the  table  in  the  full  light 
of  day,  two  of  them  being  double.  I  laid  the  pellet  on 
the  double  slates  and  placed  my  fingers  on  it  and  kept 
them  there.  In  about  fifteen  minutes  raps  came  signi- 
fying that  they  were  done.  I  picked  up  the  pellet  and 
placed  it  back  in  my  pocket,  Mr.  Evans  never  once 
having  touched  it.  Each  answer  was  correct  and 
signed  by  the  one  to  whom  it  was  addressed. 


WHY  DO  WE  GET  THE  BEST  RESULTS  FROM  A  DARK  ROOM 

IN  SITTING  FOR  SPIRIT  PHENOMENA^  OR  WHY 

IS  IT  NECESSARY  FOR  A  DARK  ROOM? 

When  a  person  wishes  to  find  out  if  he  possesses 
tljose  qualifications  requisite  for  spirit  communica- 
tions, it  is  at  first  advisable  to  use  a  darkened  room, 
for  the  following  reasons :   You,  my  friend,  found  by 


(49) 

experience  that  you  could  place  yourself  in  a  much 
more  negative  condition  in  the  dark,  and  you  soon 
learned  that  the  least  ray  of  light  would  completely 
upset  you. 

We  think  that  this  question  can  be  best  answered  by 
calling  your  attention  to  a  number  of  well-recognized 
facts.  By  way  of  an  illustration,  let  any  one  who 
wishes  to  test  this  matter  try  sitting  in  a  fully  lighted 
room  at  a  time  when  he  wishes  to  cogitate  or  hold  com- 
munion with  his  innermost  sense,  soul,  or  being,  on 
some  very  important  subject,  when  it  is  desirable  to 
concentrate  his  thoughts.  Try  this  for  about  fifteen 
minutes  and  note  the  result;  then  darken  the  room 
and  try  again,  and  you  will  find  that  in  the  dark  your 
mind  or  thoughts  will  flow  with  far  more  ease  and 
rapidity. 

It  is  also  a  well-known  fact,  not  only  with  the  hu- 
man but  also  with  the  brute,  that  when  brought  low 
with  a  wound  or  sickness,  they  seek  a  dark  place  to 
repose.  Why  do  you  always  tone  down  the  light  in  a 
sick-chamber?  If  you  should  neglect  it,  how  quickly 
the  patient  will  request  it.  Take  the  chicken  in  the 
shell,  or  the  corn  on  the  cob  as  the  grains  begin  to  form 
and  ripen,  and  note  the  complete  exclusion  of  light 
that  Nature  has  provided.  Or  take  a  seed  under  cover 
of  the  earth,  the  rose-bud,  the  womb,  or  in  fact  take 
ninety  per  cent,  of  all  Nature,  and  does  she  not  pro- 
vide a  dark  chamber  to  materialize,  produce,  or  repro- 


(50  ) 

duce  an  object,  when,  we  may  say,  she  rearranges  her 
atomic  substance? 

In  your  investigation  of  these  phenomena  you  must 
first  accept  the  facts  as  they  present  themselves  to 
you ;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  you  must  cease  your 
investigation  at  this  point  for  fear  you  may  be  en- 
croaching on  the  omniscience — with  our  apology  to 
Mr.  Davidson  for  differing  with  him. 

Light  is  composed  of  several  substances.  Hence  we 
call  it  matter,  and  as  physically  it  is  the  most  pene- 
trating matter  at  present  known  to  man  (in  fact  it  is 
so  infinitely  subdivided  that  man  loses  sight  of  it  as  it 
passes  from  the  ponderable  to  what  we  may  almost 
call  the  imponderable),  how  insinuating  this  fluid  is 
or  how  impossible  the  task  of  excluding  it  completely 
from  a  chamber  can  be  comprehended  when  you  con- 
sider the  vast  amount  of  labor  that  has  been  expended 
upon  it  in  the  city  of  Washington  by  one  of  the  Gov- 
ernment officials  in  his  fruitless  endeavor  to  build  an 
absolutely  dark  room. 

This  being  one  of  the  phenomenal  facts  that  present 
themselves  for  your  consideration,  then  the  question 
will  arise :  Are  there  not  many  other  substances  in  ex- 
istence which  may  be  equally  as  sensitive,  if  not  far 
more  so,  that  are  as  yet  unknown  to  man;  such  as 
magnetism,  electricity,  thought,  etc? 

Your  observation  of  effect  proves  to  you  that  be- 
yond a  doubt  these  substances  can  be  and  are  subdi- 


(51) 

vided  to  a  point  beyond  the  comprehension  of  man; 
and  if  this  be  the  case,  would  not  your  own  common 
sense  teach  you  that  they  could  best  operate  on  the 
ponderable  or  physical  matter  through  the  imponder- 
able by  way  of  this  so-called  darkness,  in  precisely 
the  same  way  that  the  germ  of  reproduction  operates ; 
i.  e.  the  light,  being  substance  and  antagonistic  to  cer- 
tain other  substances,  acts  as  an  obstruction  to  a 
union  or  amalgamation  of  said  substance  with  the 
matter  of  a  body  while  in  process  of  organizing. 

As  you  further  find  that  it  is  not  always  necessary 
for  the  light  to  be  excluded  in  the  case  of  a  reproduc- 
tion (i.  e.  the  ten  per  cent.),  neither  is  it  always  neces- 
sary for  it  to  be  excluded  in  all  spirit  phenomena. 

One  of  the  finest  illustrations  we  can  offer  you  on 
the  disintegrating  effect  of  light  on  other  matter  is  to 
call  your  attention  to  photography,  the  fading  or  dis- 
integration of  color,  snow-blindness,  etc.  These  ex- 
planations, we  are  aware,  will  be  received  by  an 
unprejudiced  philosopher  as  both  possible  and  prob- 
able. He  seeks  only  for  a  knowledge  of  the  cause  of  an 
effect  and  pays  no  attention  to  the  ravings  of  blind 
fanaticism  or  the  dogmatic  teachings  of  the  credulist. 
You  do  not  find  such  well-baJanced  minds  as  Wallace, 
Crooker,  Flammarion,  Keichenbach,  Edmons,  Varley, 
Barrett,  Wagner,  and  others  too  numerous  to  men- 
tion, carrying  on  their  investigations  of  these  and 
other  natural  phenomena  by  asking  why  this  or  that 


(52) 

phenomenon  is  in  the  dark  or  in  the  light,  and  then 
jumping  to  the  conclusion  that  because  an  ear  of  corn 
will  not  mature  in  the  light  without  the  husk,  it  must 
he  a  fraud.  But  they  first  satisfy  themselves  if  the 
phenomenon  is  an  existing  physical  fact;  then  they, 
as  free  philosophers,  seek  to  find  out  how  far  physical 
law  can  be  applied  to  arrive  at  a  solution  of  the  cause, 
and,  if  they  fail  to  arrive  at  a  natural  solution,  they 
are  honest  and  unprejudiced  enough  to  accept  the  phe- 
nomena as  they  present  themselves,  by  admitting  that 
the  solution  is  beyond  their  present  comprehension, 
but  that  it  is  not  improbable  that  they  may  be  better 
understood  as  man  develops  other  knoivledge  in  the 
not  distant  future  as  the  wheel  of  evolution  rolls 
slowly  onward. 

A  large  majority  of  those  who  claim  to  be  investi- 
gators of  the  truth  of  these  and  other  phenomena,  not 
being  sufficiently  well-informed  as  to  the  way  of  ap- 
plying even  physical  science  in  a  philosophical  man- 
ner, are  liable  to  drop  into  the  error  of  thinking  that 
science  should  have  the  right  to  demand  that  any  and 
all  phenomenal  truths  should  present  themselves  for 
consideration  in  any  manner  that  these  would-be 
scientists  saw  fit  to  demand. 

In  refutation  of  this,  allow  us  to  ask  this  class  of 
investigators  if  they  would  deny  the  existence  of  life 
because  it  chooses  to  make  its  first  appearance  in  the 
dark.    Man,  in  seeking  knowledge  of  Nature,  must  go 


(  53  ) 

to  Nature  and  inquire  of  her ;  and  remember,  that 
Nature  is  not  seeking  of  you,  but  you  of  her,  and  she 
will  give  you  only  such  truths  as  you  are  capable  of 
digesting.  Therefore,  if  you  should  fail  to  compre- 
hend her,  it  is  not  because  she  does  not  lay  an  abun- 
dance at  your  feet,  but  because  you  cannot  pick  it  up. 
Why,  my  friend,  it  is  the  constant  and  ceaseless  de 
sire  of  man  to  reach  after  that  which  he  does  not  pos- 
sess that  forms  one  of  the  spokes  of  the  wheel  of 
evolution,  Excelsior, 


(54) 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  MYSTIC  CIRCLE. 

Destiny, 

We  will  now  endeavor  to  convey  to  the  mind  of  the 
reader  what  it  is  we  mean  by  the  term  "Mystic  Circle." 
It  is  that  vast  and  inconceivable  amount  of  truth  that 
is  in  existence,  not  alone  in  the  earth  life,  but  perme- 
ating all  space,  which  yet  remains  to  be  known  and 
comprehended  by  the  people  of  the  earth.  For  ever^^ 
one  thing  or  truth  which  you  know  there  are  yet  more 
than  a  million  of  truths  of  which  mankind  is  in  entire 
ignorance.  Now,  my  friend  and  student,  stop  right 
here  and  ponder  well  on  the  above  assertion  in  all  its 
various  phases,  and  settle  this  point  in  your  mind, 
which  we  will  take  for  granted  is  in  the  affirmative. 
Now  we  find  your  mind  in  a  condition  to  proceed. 

The  physical  as  well  as  the  occult  truth  is  and  has 
its  existence  as  a  scientific  fact  in  the  past,  present, 
and  future,  without  regard  to  words  or  a  language, 
and  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  names  of  any 
kind,  (please  to  bear  this  in  mind)  ;  for  all  truth  was, 
is,  and  will  be  self-existent  long  before  words  were 


(65) 

invented ;  in  fact,  words  and  language,  like  time,  are 
only  man-made  conveniences  to  partially  convey  Ono 
man's  knowledge  or  meaning  to  another  of  what  he 
knows ;  and,  as  he  cannot  convey  to  another  informa- 
tion of  such  truths  as  he  does  not  know  (for  you  must 
know  it  before  you  can  coin  a  word  to  convey  it  to  an- 
other), then  you  will  see  that  all  of  those  millions  of 
truths  yet  remaining  undiscovered  in  the  vast  realm 
of  eternity  by  the  people  of  earth  can  only  be  called 
the  Mystic  Circle ,  a  circle  without  a  center  or  a  cir- 
cumference.   Truly  this  is  mystic. 

And  now,  my  friend,  if  it  should  be  your  de- 
sire to  become  a  membei-  or  this  Brotherhood  of  the 
Mystic  Circle,  its  doors  are  at  all  times  and  forever 
open  to  those  who  would  partake  of  the  feast;  for 
know  ye,  all  who  enter  its  portal  are  received  with  the 
open  arms  of  Love,  Truth,  and  Charity,  without  re- 
gard to  race,  creed  or  condition,  where  Truth  alone 
prevails. 

In  this  school  was  Socrates,  Buddha,  Christ,  and 
many  other  of  earth's  sensitives,  or  mediums,  devel- 
oped and  feasted  on  the  good  things  only  to  be  found 
on  the  tables,  which  are  many  and  varied,  of  the  Mys- 
tic Temple  of  the  Brotherhood.  And  while  you  will 
find  the  doors  at  all  times  wide  open,  there  you  will 
also  find  your  (so-called)  guardian  angel  standing  at 
the  threshold  with  open  arms,  ready  to  receive  and 
conduct  you  through  your  initiation,  teaching  and  ex- 


(56  ) 

plaining  to  jou  step  by  step,  as  you  yourself  shall 
desire  to  progress,  the  many  mysteries  of  the  temple 
as  you  advance. 

We  are  not  now  speaking  of  your  soul-passage  after 
the  so-called  death  of  the  physical  bod}^,  but  have 
reference  to  the  present  moment  of  your  life.  You 
have  been  told  of  old,  "  Knock  and  it  shall  be  opened 
to  you,  seek  and  ye  shall  find."  This  is  a  literal  truth ; 
you  must  have  an  inner  soul  desire  for  these  mystic 
truths, — not  from  mere  curiosity,  but  that  you  may 
become  more  illuminated  or  spiritualized,  and  you 
must  live  up  to  and  absolutely  put  into  your  daily  life 
the  practice  of  these  truths ;  for  know  ye,  we  will  give 
unto  you  one  piece  of  silver;  now  go  ye  your  way  a 
free  and  independent  soul,  and  after  a  time  return  to 
us  that  piece  of  silver  and  tell  us  what  use  you  made 
of  it,  for  until  you  have  learned  the  use  of  that  which 
we  have  given  you  we  cannot  advance  you  any  further, 
— i.  e.  you  cannot  learn  to  write  until  you  have  learned 
to  spell ;  you  must  creep  before  you  walk. 

You  will  find  as  you  advance  in  this  circle  that  the 
most  wonderful  knowledge  will  be  given  unto  you,  and 
in  the  queerest  manner, — so  remarkable  and  yet  so 
comprehensible  that  you  will  frequently  find  yourself 
exclaiming,  "  Of  a  truth,  this  is  mystic."  And  the 
most  beautiful  part  of  it  is  that  you  seem  to  know- 
absolutely  beyond  all  doubt  that  it  is  a  fact,  and  one 
of  the  queer  or  mystic  parts  of  it  is  that  you  cannot 


(57  ) 

give  this  knowledge  to  any  who  have  not  progressed 
themselves  that  far  into  the  mystic  circle. 

Note  the  wisdom  of  the  master  of  this  circle  right 
here,  in  that  it  is  incumbent  upon  every  individual 
soul  to  hew  out  its  own  end ;  see  how  beautifully  the 
lines  come  in : — 

"  There  's  a  destiny  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough-hew  them  how  we  will." 

By  destiny  here  is  meant  the  guardian  angel  or 
spirit  familiar  who  stands  at  the  threshold  of  that 
mystic  temple  to  assist  you  in  your  honest  ( ?)  delving 
after  knowledge;  and  when  you  come  to  understand 
that  you  are  at  this  moment  standing  and  knocking  at 
that  door,  with  your  dearest  spirit  friend  that  you 
ever  had  standing  at  your  very  shoulder  trying,  oh  so 
hard,  to  turn  your  innermost  thoughts  in  a  spiritual 
direction,  then,  and  then  only,  will  you  begin  to  com- 
prehend the  A  B  C  of  our  Brotherhood. 

As  it  is  our  object  in  writing  this  book  to  give  in- 
structions or  information  regarding  such  facts  as  we 
have  been  able  to  gather  we  will  refrain  as  much  as 
possible  from  moralizing,  and  try  to  confine  our  re- 
marks as  closely  to  the  facts  as  a  clear  comprehension 
of  the  subject  will  admit  of  and  leave  to  the  student 
the  privilege  of  spreading  it  over  a  larger  space. 


(58) 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SENSITIZED^  PROGRESSED  OR  SPIRIT  ETHER. 

Spirit  Return — Sympathetic  Attraction. 

After  I  had,  by  many  and  various  investigations, 
fully  satisfied  myself  of  the  truth  of  materialization, 
clairvoyance,  etc.,  there  took  possession  of  me  an  un- 
conquerable desire  to  know  the  law  or  facts  in  detail 
as  to  how  these  were  accomplished,  and  to  that  end  I 
have  bent  and  am  now  bending  all  my  intelligence. 

When  sitting  in  my  cabinet  as  negative  as  I  could, 
I  still  found  my  thoughts  would  be  inclined  to  drift ; 
then  I  would  steer  them  toward  the  great  question. 
How  in  the  name  of  God  was  it  done?  In  the  course 
of  five  or  six  months  I  began  to  realize  that  my 
thoughts  were  drifting  into  strange  but  beautiful  and 
logical  realms ;  I  was  shown,  given,  or  got  knowledge 
of  practical  facts,  but  how^  I  got  it,  from  whence  it 
came,  by  whom  delivered,  or  in  what  manner,  is  be- 
yond my  ability  to  tell.  Now,  some  wiseacres  will  tell 
you  it  was  impressions,  whUe  others  will  say  it  was 
inspiration,  and  yet  again  we  will  be  told  it  was  a 
super-illumination  of  the  brain,  or  perhaps  soul.     1 


(59  ) 

will  say  it  was  a  little  of  all  of  them,  and  will  express 
it  thus : 

I  saw  that  around  the  earth  body  there  was  a  large 
imponderable  body  of  electro-magnetic  ether,  extend- 
ing around  and  about  the  earth  in  an  outward  direc- 
tion for  many  thousands  of  miles,  but  belonging  to 
the  earth  only.  Upon  examination,  I  found  that  this 
ether  was  composed  of  atoms  that  had  at  one  time 
been  a  part  of  the  earth  matter,  but,  by  a  law  of  con- 
tinuous progression  or  advancement,  after  they  had 
reached  the  highest  state  of  unfoldment  that  the  earth 
could  furnish  them,  that  they  then  left  the  ponderable 
earth,  in  something  of  the  same  manner  that  the  ripe 
apple  leaves  the  tree,  and  that  right  there  our  law  of 
gravitation  had  no  longer  a  control  over  them,  but  that 
they  still  owed  allegiance  to  the  law  of  attraction. 

I  also  found  that  in  passing  outward  from  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth  that  the  further  I  went  the  less  the 
attraction,  the  less  dense  but  the  more  sensitive  these 
atoms  became;  in  fact,  the  moment  I  entered  within 
the  domain  (let  us  call  it)  of  the  spirit,  I  found  a  sen- 
sitized field  so  delicate  that  it  entirely  passed  all  hu- 
man comprehension.  I  found  that  this  ether  could 
and  did  retain  and  record  all  happenings  of  the  earth 
even  to  your  very  thoughts,  something  similar  to  Edi- 
son's audiphone. 

I  saw  that  on  or  in  this  field  of  ether  (spirit  world) 
all  things  that  were  or  ever  had  been  on  the  earth 


(  60  ) 

plane  were  here  reproduced,  but  far,  far  more  beauti- 
ful and  real ;  such  people,  flowers,  landscapes,  birds, 
fruit,  etc.,  that  I  know  of  no  words  that  can  possibly 
convey  to  you  even  a  partial  idea  of  their  magnifi- 
cence. Just  imagine  for  a  moment  the  most  perfect 
human  form  clothed  in  garments  composed  of  the 
prisms  of  the  rainbow,  moving  to  and  fro,  up  and 
down,  without  any  apparent  effort  of  their  own.  1 
no  longer  wonder  that  those  favored  mortals  who  have 
been  permitted  to  visit  this  mystic  circle  should  so 
long  for  the  change  called  death ;  for  death  indeed  is 
but  a  grand  victory  of  the  imponderahle  over  the  pon- 
der ahle. 

In  order  that  you  may  in  a  measure  comprehend 
something  of  the  fineness  or  subdivision  of  this  ether 
(for  the  greater  the  division  of  atomic  life  the  more 
sensitive  it  becomes),  I  will  say  that  I  found  that  the 
people  of  this  super-sphere  did  not  use  or  require  a 
language.  You  have,  as  it  were,  but  to  think  or  will 
what  you  wish  to  say  and  the  other  understands  you, 
so  very  sensitive  is  this  ether  in  which  all  live  and  have 
their  being.  There  are  spirits  who  make  this  and  other 
spirit  laws  a  deep  and  patient  study,  spending  cen- 
turies of  devotion  to  the  subject,  where  you  of  the 
earth  spend  days  of  your  time.  All  spirits  do  not  un- 
derstand these  laws  of  spirit  return  or  how  to  raise  or 
develop  the  mortal  medium's  organism  up  to  that  sen- 
sitive condition  that  they  (the  spirits)  may  use  them. 


(  61  )  V^'^^P'Ty) 

This  law  is  purely  a  eliemieal  law  on  the  spirit  side  of 
life,  as  well  as  on  the  earth  plane. 

NoAv,  inj  friend,  Ave  will  again  ask  you  to  stop  and 
consider,  how  many  of  you  of  the  earth  life  are  quali- 
fied to  go  into  a  laboratory  and  fully  analyze  the  dif- 
ferent matters  (atom  life)?  Why,  not  one  in  a 
million !  How  many  sons  of  earth  are  organized  as  a 
Mozart,  a  Webster,  or  an  Edison,  etc?  Not  one  in  ten 
million ! 

The  spirits  on  our  side  of  life  find  many  obstacles  in 
our  path  which  only  time  and  great  patience  can  re- 
move ;  for  nearly  all  spirit  intercourse  with  the  people 
of  earth  depends  largely  on  the  moral  or  spiritual  ad- 
vancement of  the  people  of  the  earth ;  as  you  become 
more  lovable,  kind,  and  charitable,  you  raise  the  sen- 
sibilities of  the  ether  which  you  throw  off,  which  al- 
lows us  (  the  spirits)  to  draw  nearer  unto  you  and 
more  properly  control  your  thoughts. 

I  also  found  in  the  phenomena  of  painting  in  oil 
and  drawing  or  writing  on  slates  that  the  spirits  did 
not  actually  consume  any  of  the  pigment  of  the  paint 
or  pencil,  but  that  they  drew  from  these  articles  that 
part  of  the  matter  that  had  reached  its  highest  enfold- 
ment;  i.  e.  the  spiritualized  or  imponderable  part 
without  any  apparent  wasting  away  of  the  earthly 
atom.  To  satisfy  yourselves  of  the  truth  of  this,  go  to 
a  good  slate-writing  medium  and  note  the  size  of  the 
small  crumb  of  pencil  he  places  between  the  slates^ 


(62  ) 

then,  after  jou  open  the  slates  and  find  both  sides  of 
them  fully  covered  with  writing,  again  note  the  size  of 
the  crumb  of  pencil,  and  you  will  find  that  it  has  not 
diminished  a  particle. 


SYMPATHETIC  ATTRACTION. 

(Or  no  ponderable  matter  is  real.) 

All  objective  matter  is  built  up  by  sympathetic  at- 
traction of  the  ultimate  atoms  of  their  respective 
kinds.  These  atoms  in  their  single  state  are  so  incon- 
ceivably small  as  to  take  on  something  of  the  nature  of 
an  influence,  and  are  able  to  pass  through  other  so- 
called  solid  matter, — for  the  only  solid  matter  is  the 
single  infinite  atom,  the  single  ultimate  atom  being 
composed  of  many  infinite  atoms. 

Here  let  me  again  explain  what  is  meant  by  an  ulti- 
mate atom.  It  is  matter  divided  down  to  the  smallest 
point  of  human  comprehension;  such  as  an  atom  of 
magnetism,  electricity,  sunlight,  thought,  color,  etc. 

As  all  object  matter  is  ceaselessly  taking  on  and 
throwing  off  matter  in  the  atomic  form,  then  it  follows 
that  objective  matter  is  constantly  changing;  there- 
fore, it  is  always  in  motion.  Then  it  is  never,  for  the 
smallest  fraction  of  time,  the  same;  hence  it  has  no 
real  existence  as  one  or  the  same  object  at  any  one 
point  in  time.    Take,  for  an  instance,  the  apple  just 


(  63  ) 

after  the  blossom  has  left  the  pod,  then  take  the  full 
ripe  apple  as  it  falls  from  the  tree.  Did  the  apple 
change  in  the  fraction  of  a  second,  and,  if  not,  at  what 
comprehensive  point  in  time  did  it  change  from  a  pod 
to  a  full  ripe  apple?  All  of  the  atoms  that  entered  into 
the  growing  fruit  during  its  progress  did  not  remain 
with  the  fruit  by  a  very  large  percentage,  but  passed 
off,  leaving  in  their  passage  a  portion  of  the  ultimates 
with  the  growing  apple.  As  a  positive  know^ledge  of 
this  truth,  apply  your  sense  of  smell  at  any  stage  of  its 
growth.  Is  not  the  fragrance  matter  being  cast  off 
by  the  fruit?  Physical  science  has  long  since  acknowl- 
edged that  all  known  so-called  solids  are  composed  of 
spherical-shaped  atoms  having  a  space  between  them. 
How,  then,  can  they  be  solid? 

And  now  your  attention,  please.  How  about  the 
single  infinite  atom?  Is  not  that  a  solid,  and  there- 
fore real,  as  it  cannot  change,  being  infinite  and  eter- 
nal? And,  as  we  cannot  see  it,  then  only  that  which 
we  do  not  see  is  real. 


(64) 


CHAPTER  VIIL 


BODY  AND  SOUL. 


In  order  to  convey  our  idea  to  the  reader  of  the 
truth  of  matter  in  the  ponderable  and  imponderable 
state  and  its  relation  to  life  or  soul,  we  will  have  to 
begin  at  a  point  just  previous  to  human  and  also  spirit 
comprehension,  which  is  the  ultimate  atom.  All  of 
your  scientists  agree  that  all  matter,  whether  in  a 
gaseous  or  solid  state,  even  including  light,  heat,  etc., 
is  composed  of  atoms  supposed  to  be  in  a  spherical 
shape  and  so  small  as  to  be  beyond  human  compre- 
hension; hence  the  necessity  of  our  beginning  our 
explanation  at  or  a  little  previous  to  human  compre- 
hension,— i.  e.  life  and  the  atom. 

If  the  atom  is  so  small  that  even  the  spirits  cannot 
see  or  comprehend  it,  then  how  much  more  incompre- 
hensible would  be  and  is  the  life  force  or  principle  that 
is  within  the  single  atom?  This  life  we  will  designate 
as  God  or  over-soul,  as  we  know  that  it  permeates  and 
flows  through  and  through  all  matter  and  all  space, 
and  is  superior  to  and  governs  all  things  whatsoever; 


(  65  ) 

and  beyond  this  we,  the  spirits,  cannot  advise  you,  but 
will  begin  at  this  point  by  saying  that  the  atoms  which 
fill  all  space  in  the  original  single  atom  state  of  atom 
life  are  imponderable  to  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  mor- 
tal. It  is  only  when  two  or  more  atoms  come  together 
by  mutual  attraction,  such  as  rose  to  rose,  color  to 
color,  etc.,  that  they  become  visible  to  the  advanced 
spirits,  and  only  then  to  a  very  limited  extent;  and  it 
is  by  studying  this  law  of  accumulative  atoms  that  we 
find  the  law  of  spirit  communication.  These  atoms 
that  we  have  just  spoken  of  are  not  the  atoms  that 
compose  the  spirit  world,  but  are  the  atoms  of  which 
you  and  your  world  are  composed ;  and  in  this  condi- 
tion, as  a  world,  they  have  taken  on  their  second 
change, — for  they  have  to  pass  through  the  various 
laws  of  the  earth  evolution  and  gradually  rise  from 
cycle  to  cycle  in  their  earth  condition  until  the  earth 
can  no  longer  furnish  them  any  more  advancement  or 
unfoldment,  when  then,  by  this  wonderful  law  of  life, 
they  take  on  a  higher  condition  of  spirit  and  become 
the  component  part  of  that  which  goes  to  produce  the 
spirit  and  spirit  world. 

Now,  in  order  that  the  student  may  more  readily 
understand  us,  we  will  first  run  down  the  line  of 
known  facts  again.  When  two  or  more  atoms  come 
together  they  form  objective  life ;  this  again  produces 
a  gaseous  body,  and  this  produces  a  fluid  body,  caused 
by  pressure  and  chemical  changes;  this  produces  the 


(  66  ) 

rock  life.  Next  we  have  vegetable  life,  next  animal 
life,  next  spirit  life,  and  then  soul  life,  which  is  as  far 
as  we  can  comprehend.  Now,  in  the  first  stage  of  the 
world's  evolution  all  was  in  a  rank  and  crude  condi- 
tion. For  the  purpose  of  a  clearer  understanding,  let 
us  take  the  vegetable  life  of  the  primeval  age  and  com- 
pare it  with  the  present  advanced  stage  of  vegetation, 
your  almost  perfect  fruit  and  flowers ;  all  this  was  not 
wrought  in  a  day  but  required  vast  cycles  of  time.  In 
the  fullness  of  time  Mother  Earth  gave  forth  her  fruits 
to  be  again  disintegrated  (not  destroyed),  and  then 
again  reproduced  one  step  in  advance  of  the  order  of 
life  unfoldment,  and  the  same  order  is  followed  out  in 
regards  to  the  rocks  and  animal  life.  The  rocks  were 
crude  and  unclassified  at  their  first  appearance  out  of 
the  seething  fires  of  the  liquid  cycle,  and  just  so  was 
the  human  family.  No  one  will  doubt  for  a  moment  the 
advanced  condition  of  man  to-day  over  the  primeval 
man.  And  what  has  caused  this  change?  Why,  as  man 
reached  his  three-score  years  and  ten  (the  so-called 
Biblical  limit  of  the  average  human  life),  his  body  be- 
ing purely  physical  or  ponderable,  reaches  its  earth 
limit  as  an  object  life;  but  in  its  conception  as  an  ob- 
ject it  also  takes  on  an  undeveloped  spirit  body,  and 
the  purpose  of  this  physical  life  is  to  furnish  a  condi- 
tion for  the  spirit  to  unfold,  preparatory  to  its  second 
change  or  advent  into  yet  another  condition. 

Now,  understand  that  the  spirit  is  a  body  composed 


(67) 

of.  atoms,  similar  to  the  earth  or  physical  body,  with 
the  difference  that  it  is  imponderable,  having  no 
longer  any  use  for  a  ponderable  body.  The  spirit  body, 
while  it  is  a  tenant  of  the  earth  body,  is  at  the  same 
time  the  possessor  of  a  soul  or  life  principle;  at  first, 
as  in  a  new-born  infant,  so  delicate  as  to  be  hardly  dis- 
cernible. Now,  as  the  physical  body  fosters  the  spirit 
and  is  responsible  for  a  perfect  piece  of  work,  so  is 
the  spirit  again  responsible  for  a  good  soul,  and  this 
order  applies  to  matter  of  whatsoever  nature,  the 
primeval  stage  merely  preparing  the  way  for  the  ad- 
vanced change;  round  and  round,  onward  and  still 
onward,  until  it  passes  beyond  not  only  human  but 
spirit  comprehension. 

Now,  my  friend,  you  see  nothing  here  irrational,  but 
simply  a  straight,  onward  course  of  logical  deduction 
from  cause  to  effect.  Now,  please  compare  the  above 
assertion  with  the  old  mythological  and  ignorant 
teachings  of  a  still  more  unlearned  and  self-aggrandiz- 
ing teacher,  such  as  nothing  containing  nothing  out  of 
which  came  a  personal  God.  This  God  was  not  cre- 
ated. Oh,  no !  But  after  that,  what?  Why,  everything 
else  was  created  out  of  nothing.  Does  not  your  own 
enlightenment  in  this  present  age,  backed  by  all  the 
wise  teachers  of  to-day,  go  to  prove  beyond  all  doubt 
that  nothing  whatever  can  be  destroyed,  cease  to  be,  or 
be  reduced  to  nothing?  Then,  if  it  cannot  be  reduced 
to  nothing,  it  follows,  by  a  natural  course  of  reason- 


(68    ) 

ing,  that  it  never  came  from  nothing  but  the  atom 
which  fills  all  known  space;  merely  change,  change, 
change,  from  one  condition  or  form  of  life  to  still  an- 
other and  higher  condition  of  life,  on  and  on  and  on 
until  all  passes  beyond  human  comprehension  into  the 
vast  unknown,  a  space  so  large  as  to  pass  all  human 
understanding  and  every  minute  part  of  said  space 
filled  exactly  full,  without  crowding,  with  atom  life,  so 
small  that  they,  on  their  part,  pass  all  comprehension. 
Therefore,  as  all  space  is  exactly  filled  with  atoms,  you 
will  readily  see  that  there  could  not  possibly  be  any 
such  thing  as  a  vacuum,  or  a  space  containing  not  any- 
thing; and  as  all  atoms  have  atom  life,  and  life  is 
God,  or  the  soul  of  things  (for  it  is  only  a  name),* 
then  you  can  very  clearly  see  how  it  is  not  only  possi- 
ble but  a  logical  fact  that  God  is  everywhere. 

STRANGE  GODS. 

Whenever  a  man  or  a  set  of  men  claim  a  knowledge 
of  facts  previous  to  or  beyond  the  point  of  human  com- 
prehension, that  man  is  either  a  knave  or  a  fool  and 
would  have  you  to  worship  strange  gods.  Far  more 
will  it  profit  the  children  of  earth  to  confine  their  wor- 
ship within  the  limit  of  their  understanding,  giving 
preference  at  all  times  to  that  which  they  know  over 
that  which  thev  believe. 


*Life  is  only  an  effect  or  expression  of  three  entities,  which  are  Thought, 
Force,  and  Substance.    (See  Chapter  38.) 


(69) 


CHAPTEK  IX. 
(We  do  not  claim  this  as  impressional. ) 

HEALING  BY  THE  ULTIMATE  ATOM. 

After  having  practiced  and  experimented  with  the 
forces  used  in  healing,  for  something  like  three  years, 
testing  it  by  every  known  principle  at  my  command, 
and  being  mindful  of  the  facts  of  the  penetrating  prop- 
erties of  the  refined  or  spirit  ultimates,  I  have  arrived 
at  the  following  deductions : — 

That  by  sitting  at  regular  intervals,  as  directed  in 
a  former  chapter,  so  as  to  develop  such  forces  as  your 
individual  organism  is  endowed  with,  you  raise  the 
quality  of  your  earth  condition  sufficiently  to  allow 
the  spirit  band  that  you  thereby  attract  to  you,  to  pass 
the  atom  of  health,  or  pure  atoms,  of  life-giving  im- 
ponderable matter,  through  your  physical  organism 
into  the  organism  of  the  one  afflicted.  Sometimes  it 
happens  that  the  one  afflicted  stands  very  low  in  spiri- 
tual development  of  his  or  her  organism ;  and,  in  that 
case,  you  may  not  always  be  successful. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  meaning  that  the 
one  who  is  spiritually  undeveloped  is  morally  what 


(  70  ) 

the  creedal  world  calls  a  bad  person,  but  that  he  has 
never  given  these  occult  or  psychological  laws  a  suffi- 
cient investigation,  so  as  to  be  able  to  place  himself  in 
a  negative  or  receptive  condition  to  the  healer  or  to 
his  band. 

In  applying  these  psychological  laws,  one  who  has 
not  delved  deeply  below  the  surface  knowledge  of  your 
creeds  and  false  roads  to  truth,  unless  he  is  very  care- 
ful, is  apt  to  weigh  the  natural  truth  with  a  false  pair 
of  scales,  and  hence  to  arrive  at  false  deductions ;  and 
while  I  acknowledge  my  inability  to  clearly  convey  to 
you  a  full  explanation  of  the  modus  operandi  of  heal- 
ing,— more  from  the  want  of  a  word  or  of  words  at  the 
proper  place, — yet  I  will  do  the  best  I  can. 

This  whole  occult  field  is  so  vast,  and  so  very  much 
remains  for  the  student  to  know  and  comprehend,  and 
the  still  greater  misfortune  that  the  study  of  psychol- 
ogy has  only  within  the  last  ten  years  (this  is  1897)  be- 
come sufficiently  recognized  by  your  professors  of 
learning  as  to  allow  it  a  chair  of  special  study  in  your 
universities,  that  I  hope  the  reader  of  this  little  book 
will  be  charitable  enough  with  me  to  remember  that 
I  am  only  one  of  the  pioneers,  with  no  fine  library  on 
occultism  to  refresh  my  memory,  but  that  I  must  of 
necessity  plunge  right  ahead  into  the  briars  and  un- 
derwood and  hew  a  path,  rough  and  crude  though  it 
be,  for  those  who  may  dare  to  follow  my  lead,  sincerely 
lioping  that  they  may  find  sufficient  inducements,  as 


(71  ) 

they  progress  along  the  road,  to  plant  and  cultivate 
such  rare  and  beautiful  flowers  of  truth  along  the  way 
that  they,  in  their  turn,  may  be  blessed  by  the  next 
generation  in  evolution  for  daring  to  forever  anni- 
hilate the  demon  Drug  from  the  human  family. 

When  I  first  began  to  heal,  I  placed  my  right  hand 
on  the  spot  where  the  most  pain  was,  and  the  left  hand 
just  opposite.  I  alway  prefer  the  bare  flesh,  but  there 
were  times  when  circumstances  required  a  cloth  of 
some  kind,  and  I  then  found  the  results  the  same,  or 
nearly  so.  I  would  sometimes  have  to  give  five  or  six 
extra  treatments.  My  hands  would  feel  to  the  patient 
as  if  they  were  covered  with  dr^^  mustard ;  that  is,  a 
slight  pricking  or  burning  sensation,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  back  of  my  hand  would  be  very  cold.  I  would 
keep  my  hands  on  the  patient  about  ten  minutes,  or 
sometimes  twenty  minutes.  There  seemed  a  sort  of 
premonition  or  instinct  which  warned  me  when  to 
take  them  off ;  and  very  often  I  would  feel  the  influence 
cease  to  flow,  which  at  first— that  is,  the  first  year — 
was  a  kind  of  burning  sensation  in  my  hands. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  year  I  noticed  a  radical 
change.  When  I  put  my  hands  on  a  person,  in  less 
than  a  minute  there  would  generate  a  queer  buzzing, 
whirling,  or  vibratory  motion  in  my  right  breast.  This 
would  flow  down  my  right  arm  and  give  off,  through 
my  hand  and  fingers,  a  vibration  of  about  ^ye  hundred 
to  one  thousand  beats  per  minute;  at  the  same  time 


(72  ) 

the  back  of  my  hands  being  very  cold,  while  'the  palms 
of  the  hand  would  sometimes  burn  the  patients  so  bad- 
ly that  they  could  not  stand  it.  This  was  not  an  imagi- 
nary feeling,  for  the  patients  felt  the  vibration  as 
well  as  I ;  hence  the  false  deductions  of  some,  calling 
it  magnetism.  But  let  me  say  to  you,  my  friend,  those 
who  call  it  magnetism,  or  electricity,  have  no  knowl- 
edge of  facts  whatever  to  so  assert,  but  do  so  from  the 
old  hahit  of  the  human  race,  of  giving  it  a  name  at  all 
hazards,  for  fear  that  some  one  will  think  them  igno- 
rant if  they  do  not  profess  to  know  all  about  it.  And 
thus  again  is  planted  the  seed  of  error. 

How  can  any  one  but  the  healer  possibly  feel  these 
psycho-physical  forces,  and  they  only  as  they  develop 
them?  for  not  only  the  heat,  cold,  and  vibratory  mo- 
tion does  the  healer  feel,  but  that  mystic  feeling  that 
cannot  be  described  in  words. 

On  one  occasion,  when  I  was  treating  a  patient  for 
pleurisy,  I  placed  my  hand  over  the  bowels.  In  a  few 
minutes,  we  both  began  to  smell  tallow  very  strong, 
when  I  began  to  stroke  the  bowels  lightly  before  re- 
moving my  hands, — which  I  always  do  for  two  or  three 
uduutes, — I  found  the  patient  was  covered  with  some- 
thing like  tallow  under  my  hand.  Question :  Where 
did  it  come  from?  I  answer  truthfully:  I  do  not 
know. 

At  another  time,  I  have  had  a  lotion  come  under  my 
hand,  which  seemed  half  water  and  half  oil,  in  such 


(  73  ) 

quantity  as  to  drip  off  on  the  floor.  This  could  not 
have  been  magnetism,  mind-cure,  or  Christian  Science. 

The  object  in  stroking  the  patient  just  before  you 
remove  your  hands  is  to  break  the  condition  between 
the  patient  and  the  healer.  Then  you  should  immedi- 
ately place  your  (the  healer's)  hands  in  cold  water  for 
a  couple  of  minutes.  This  seems  to  absorb  the  disease 
from  the  healer ;  for,  by  experimenting,  I  found  that 
whenever  I  neglected  to  put  my  hands  in  cold  water, 
I  was  sure  to  feel  the  effect  of  the  ailment. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  third  year,  another  change 
in  treating  came  over  me;  i.  e.  when  I  placed  my 
hands  on  the  patient,  not  only  the  trembling  began, 
but  some  internal  force  would  try  to  make  me  talk, 
although  they  have  not  as  yet  succeeded  in  articulat- 
ing any  plain  words.  This  is  explained  by  the  spirit 
of  old  Massasoit  (an  Indian  who  has  been  with  me  for 
eight  years)  on  the  ground  that  he  cannot  yet  speak 
English,  but  is  learning  it  very  fast.* 

I  will  now  give  you  an  article  on  Healing  which  I 
wrote  about  two  years  ago,  as  I  think  it  will  throw 
some  light  on  the  subject. 

HEALING  BY  THE  LAYING  ON  OF  HANDS^ 

Without  the  inevitable  accompaniment  of  our  faith, 
in  our  ptirticular  creed,  did  the  business.  Eighty-five 
cured  out  of  the  first  one  hundred  trials,  and  done 

*But  this  I  doubt.— C,  H.  F. 


(74) 

without  faith,  prayer,  Christian  Science,  concentra- 
tion of  mind,  magnetism,  or  massage  treatment.  But 
done  by  a  law  of  nature  as  old  as  the  human  race, 
and  which  embraces  all  of  the  above  claims  in  such 
proportion  to  the  whole  truth,  as  six  drops  of  water 
does  to  the  mighty  ocean. 

About  one  year  ago  (noAV  three  years)  I  developed 
this  same  wonderful  power,  and  I  concluded  to  investi- 
gate it  as  carefully  as  my  limited  intelligence  would 
allow.  I  decided  to  treat  every  case  just  as  it  came 
along,  keeping  a  record  of  each  case,  and  at  the  same 
time  try  to  keep  my  mind  as  free  from  creedal  influ- 
ence or  a  priori  opinion  as  I  possibly  could,  until  I 
had  treated  one  hundred  cases  free  of  charge,  testing 
and  experimenting  as  I  went  along. 

The  result  is,  I  found,  that  to  cure  people  of  pain 
and  disease  by  simply  laying  my  hands  on  them  is  a 
?monstrated  fact.  And  so  far  as  my  experiments 
have  gone  (i.  e.  eighty-five  per  cent,  cured),  I  find  that 
neither  Christian  Science,  faith,  mind,  magnetism,  or 
massage  have  anything  whatever  to  do  with  it. 

As  an  illustration,  people  have  come  to  me  suffering 
from  pain  or  disease  and  said  they  did  not  have  any 
faith  or  belief  in  Christian  Science,  mind-cure,  etc. 
My  invariable  answer  to  such  people  has  been  :  "  I  do 
not  care  what  you  believe.  When  I  put  my  hands  on 
you  and  the  pain  leaves,  it  will  be  a  matter  of  knowl- 
ed(je  and  not  belief/^ 


(75) 

And  I  also  find  that  very  many  people  have  this 
same  latent  force  within  their  own  organism  and 
could  develop  it  to  a  more  or  less  extent,  if  they  would 
onh^  pursue  the  proper  course,  remembering  at  the 
same  time  that  the  poet,  artist,  inventor — in  fact,  all 
our  geniuses, —  have  their  peculiar  forces  slumbering 
within  them,  until  brought  forth  by  a  proper  course 
of  development.    Hie  labor,  hoc  opus  est. 

And  right  here,  many  will  naturally  ask  "  If  this 
power  to  heal  is  not  mind,  magnetism,  etc.,  as  claimed 
by  many,  then  what  is  it?  "  As  to  that,  I  can  only  an- 
swer :  It  is  a  power  to  be  felt  by  those  who  possess  it, 
but  not  described,  as  it  is  beyond  human  comprehen- 
sion, and  no  language  has  yet  been  coined  by  which  it 
may  be  described.  And  for  me  to  attempt  it,  would 
only  lead  to  the  old  error  of  mind,  faith,  etc.  And 
furthermore,  I  do  not  find  anything  of  the  miraculous 
or  instantaneous  cure;  but  I  have  cured  some  in  two 
minutes,  and  as  many  as  twenty  in  ten  minutes,  while 
the  majority  required  from  ten  to  sixty  days,  with  a 
gradual  gain  in  health  from  the  first  treatment  to  the 
end;  thus  showing  it  to  be  a  natural  law,  incompre- 
hensible to  a  very  large  majority  of  the  denizens  of  this 
world,  I  will  admit,  but  nevertheless  a  truth,  as  many 
citizens  of  Alameda,  California,  can  testify. 


(76) 


CHAPTER   X. 

A  LITTLE  GRAIN  OF  CORN  OR  THE  QUICKENING 
GERM  OF  LIFE. 

( May  25, 1895.    The  first  of  series  number  2. ) 

The  average  physical  scientist  will  tell  you  that 
nature  reproduces  in  this  way :  By  planting  the  grain 
in  proper  moist  soil,  etc.,  the  germ  of  life  is  brought 
to  a  quickening  sense  by  the  heat  and  moisture,  and  is 
a  purely  chemical  transaction.  Now,  let  us  see  if  they 
have  really  gone  to  the  bottom  of  the  subject,  or,  in 
other  words,  reached  the  limit  of  human  comprehen- 
sion. But  I  will  ask,  from  whence  came  this  (or  these) 
extra  germs?  For  at  the  very  moment  of  its  quicken- 
ing, right  there  is  ingrafted  the  first  object  life  of 
every  single  grain  of  corn  that  will  be  found  on  the 
matured  ear  when  it  shall  have  reached  its  full  devel- 
opment. 

It  was  at  this  point  of  knowledge  that  the  ancient 
alchemists,  adejjts,  Mahatmas,  and  other  deep  stu- 
dents of  Nature/s  mystic  storehouse  began  to  investi- 
gate the  hidden  or  mysterious  laws  of  life.  From  this 
point  they  began  to  trace  backwards  by  a  process  of 


(77) 

reasoning  something  after  this  manner:  If  life  pro- 
duces energy,  and  energy  produces  force,  and  force 
produces  motion,  and  motion  produces  change,  and 
change  produces  evolution,  then  does  it  not  folloAV  by 
the  same  law  of  deduction  that  motion  produces  elec- 
tricity, electricity  produces  magnetism,  and  magnet- 
ism produces  attraction?  Why,  3^es;  of  course.  Well 
then,  what  does  it  attract?  Reason  teaches  us  there 
could  be  no  attraction  without  something  to  attract. 
Why,  by  the  quickening  process  of  conception,  it  at- 
tracts that  which  is  nearest  or  next  in  the  degree  of 
progress,  which  is  the  single  ultimate  of  life  or  soul, 
from  that  life- fluid  that  is  constantly  flowing  through 
and  permeating  all  matter  and  all  space. 

Then  we  find  that  up  to  this  point,  i.e.  so  far  as  our 
own  researches  have  carried  us,  all  power  is  derived 
from  life.  And  as  we  find,  after  centuries  of  investiga- 
tion, that  human  comprehension  can  go  no  farther, 
then  let  us  see  what  other  truths  we  can  extract  from 
life. 

Now,  as  all  matter,  even  the  little  grain  of  corn,  is 
but  the  expression  of  life,  then  it  follows  that,  had  the 
life-fluid  for  some  unknown  reason  failed  to  be  at- 
tracted to  the  seedling  while  undergoing  the  process 
of  quickening,  then  another  and  far  different  result 
would  be  the  outcome  of  heat  and  moisture,  to  wit, 
a  disintegration  of  the  atom  life  of  that  grain  of  corn, 
said  atoms  to  be  again  passed  through  the  mills  of  the 


(78) 

gods,  and  be  again  reproduced  in  some  other  and 
higher  form  of  expressed  life. 

Having  reached  thus  far  in  our  investigation,  we 
will  take  it  for  granted  that  as  with  the  vegetable 
line  of  evolution  or  progress,  so  also  is  it  with  the 
animal  kingdom.  We  find  by  looking  backward  for 
countless  ages  of  time  that  Mother  Earth  has  evi- 
dently reached  the  physical  limit  of  her  work  when 
she  produced  man,  and  Ave  are  perfectly  justified  in 
this  conclusion  from  the  fact  that  the  next  step  on- 
ward is  the  spirit  world.  Now  again,  we  bring  our 
reasoning  faculties  into  play  and  ask  ourselves  the 
question :  If  the  spirit  which  is  next  above  us  in  degree 
can  take  a  step  backwards  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
control  a  physical  earth  man,  then  is  there  not  a  law 
by  which  a  physical  man  can  control  that  life  which 
is  next  below  him?    That  is.  Hypnotism? 


(79) 


CHAPTEE   XI. 

HYPNOTISM. 

July  1,  1895. — After  waiting  for  a  space  of  two 
months,  I  am  again  impressed  to  continue  this  work. 

As  we  find  that  the  earth  man  is  composed  of  three 
separate  and  distinct  parts, — i.e.  the  physical  body, 
the  spirit  body  and  the  soul, — then  may  not  these,  by 
some  law,  be  temporarily  separated,  acted  upon,  or 
influenced  in  their  separate  and  distinct  paths?  And 
if  so,  by  what  force  and  in  what  manner? 

We  will  reason  thus:  If  we  wish  to  reduce  wine 
we  would  not  resort  to  sand  or  flesh,  but  would 
naturall}^  seek  a  fluid  whose  atomic  life  or  parts  would 
be  the  nearest  in  direct  sympathy  or  harmony  with 
the  wine  as  our  own  knowledge  of  the  subject  would 
suggest.  Now,  the  spirit  man,  being  a  separate  and 
distinct  part  from  the  physical  man,  is  capable  of  sep- 
arating itself  from  tlie  physical  body  at  times,  as  has 
been  abundantly  proven  on  numerous  occasions,  at 
least  to  those  ancient  and  modern  students  who  have 
patiently  and  carefully  applied  themselves  to  a  fair 
and  impartial  investigation  of  the  subject  matter. 

Right  here  allow  me  to  add  my  own  testimony.    I 


(  80  ) 

have  while  wide  awake  seen  my  spirit  body,  standing 
fifty  feet  away,  conversing  with  two  other  spirits,  just 
as  plainly  as  I  ever  saw  my  physical  body.  I  could 
not  hear  what  they  said,  but  was  perfectly  aware  that 
it  Avas  my  so-called  second  self  and  was  particular  to 
study  it  closely  for  a  space  of  four  or  five  minutes, 
when  it  passed  away.  (For  the  benefit  of  those  who 
might  be  disposed  to  treat  this  assertion  with  levity, 
I  will  say  that  I  did  not  see  any  snakes  around  it  or 
myself. ) 

Then,  it  would  naturally  follow  that  the  law  and 
forces  to  be  investigated  and  applied,  for  the  purpose 
of  controlling  those  of  our  physical  race,  must  be 
through  and  by  that  field  in  which  both  parties  can 
and  do  move  the  nearest  in  harmonv,  which  is  the 
spirit  ether,  spirit  world,  or  spirit  magnetism,  just 
as  it  suits  the  student's  fancy  to  call  it. 

As  I  have  said  in  a  former  part  of  this  work,  I  have 
no  time  or  disposition  to  correctly  select  a  name  or 
classify  these  laws.  Let  the  student  always  bear  in 
mind  that  I  am  only  blindly  pushing  ahead  into  the 
briars  and  rocks,  trying  to  bring  to  light  the  crude 
truths,  in  order  to  break  the  way  for  those  who  may 
choose  to  follow,  hoping  that  there  may  be  some  one 
of  those  who  care  to  investigate  who  shall  be  scholarly 
and  enlightened  enough  to  put  these  truths  into  a 
more  detailed  and  comprehensive  manner  before  their 
fellow  man. 


(81) 

While  the  spirit  part  of  your  physical  body  can  pro- 
ject itself  from  you  to  almost  any  distance  by  means  of 
this  spirit  ether,  it  can  also,  while  remaining  in  your 
])ody,  so  control  certain  properties  in  this  ether  as  to 
reach  the  spirit  of  other  bodies  that  are  negative  to  the 
controlling  spirit,  and  even  here,  distance  appears  to 
cut  no  figure. 

Now,  by  controlling  the  negative  spirit,  that  spirit 
again  controls  the  negative  body;  for  the  body,  in 
this  case,  is  lower  in  the  order  of  evolution  than  its 
spirit.  To  illustrate :  I,  being  the  positive,  command 
my  spirit  to  take  possession  or  command  of  John 
Doe's  spirit.  My  spirit  then  says  to  John,  "  You  must 
obey  my  will,  John;  your  hand  is  made  of  cork  and 
can  feel  no  pain.''  Now,  John's  spirit,  being  under  my 
control,  so  conveys  this  impression  to  his  phj^sical 
hand,  and  it  really  feels  no  pain  when  you  pass  a 
needle  through  it.  It  is  by  this  law  or  force  that  T 
have  been  more  or  less  successful  in  relieving  pain; 
i.  e.,  by  a  part  of  this  law,  for  it  is  subdivided  into 
many  parts.  That  you  may  clearly  understand  me, 
I  will  now  make  a  bold  assertion : — 


YOU  DO  NOT  SEE  WITH  YOUR  EYES. 

Man  does  not  see  with  his  physical  eyes  at  all; 
neither  does  he  hear  with  his  physical  ears,  nor  does 
he  really  receive  any  of  his  knowledge  through  his 


(82) 

physical  organs  of  sense;  they  are  merely  pieces  of 
mechanism  belonging  to  and  subject  to  his  spirit.  For 
instance,  your  eye  is  a  window  for  the  soul  or  life 
fluid,  through  which  the  spirit  looks  and  conveys  an 
impression  to  the  soul.*  This  is  definitely  proven 
by  the  fact  of  clairvoyance.  I  knoAV  that  I  can  see, 
feel,  hear,  taste,  and  smell  just  as  well  when  I  am  in 
one  of  those  sensitive  conditions  with  all  of  my  physi- 
cal senses  lying  dormant  as  I  can  when  in  a  normal 
condition,  which  is  the  best  proof  in  the  world  that 
the  spirit  of  your  body  is  the  real  mail. 

Now,  do  not  jump  off  the  platform  at  this  point  and 
reply,  "  If  you  put  my  physical  eye  out  I  cannot  see," 
but  bear  in  mind  one  thing,  and  that  is  that  I  am 
speaking  now  of  the  psychological  law  of  the  Mystic 
Circle,  many  things  of  which  3^ou  may  or  may  not 
know  very  little  about,  for  you  absolutely  must  de- 
velop these  forces  before  you  can  clearly  understand 
them.  I  am  only  calling  your  attention  to  those 
known  truths  in  nature  which  directly  connect  the 
physical  and  the  spirit  of  matter  by  means  of  this 
spirit  ether,  which  is  psychology. 

Again,  I  now  command  John's  spirit  to  go  on  a  jour- 
ney of  one  hundred  miles  to  a  certain  house,  describ- 
ing hoAv  he  must  make  the  journey,  the  route,  position, 
etc.  I  order  him  to  go  into  a  certain  room  and  to  tell 
me  what  he  finds  there.     The  spirit  of  John  starts, 


♦See  article  on  "  Spirit  the  Effect  of  a  Physical  Cause,"  page  108. 


(  83  ) 

describing  the  scenery  on  the  way,  until  he  reaches  his 
destination.  Now,  the  spirit  of  John  is  the  closest 
allied,  in  this  case,  to  his  physical  body  and  senses. 
The  spirit  conveys  to  the  physical,  and  the  physical 
repeats  to  me.  Here  we  find  that  a  distance  of  one 
hundred  miles  has  been  overcome  while  time  has 
almost  been  annihilated,  the  entire  time  occupied 
being  but  two  or  three  minutes.  Question :  Who  and 
what  was  it  that  traveled  that  distance,  describing 
scenery  on  the  way?  Surely  not  the  physical  body, 
which  never  left  our  sight. 


(84) 


CHAPTER  XII. 

REPLY  TO  PROFESSOR  HUXLEY  ON  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF 
LIFE. — PROTOPLASM  DIES^  OR  DEAD   MATTER. 

Protoplasm  is  composed  of  four  substances —  car- 
bon, hydrogen,  oxygen,  and  nitrogen, — each  in  their 
turn  containing  life,  as  a  combination.  It  may  dis- 
integrate, but  life  cannot  die,  for  there  is  no  matter  in 
life  to  die;  matter  is  but  the  expression  of  life.  Pro- 
fessor Huxley  uses  the  words,  "  The  matter  of  life." 
There  is  no  such  thing.  But  there  is  such  a  truth  as 
the  life  of  matter.  Such  errors  only  lead  to  other  mis- 
takes. I  predict  that  before  this  generation  shall  have 
passed  away  the  works  of  Descartes,  Huxley,  and 
many  others  of  like  opinion  will  be  looked  upon  as  the 
tail  end  of  the  dark  ages ;  for  right  where  our  present 
and  past  physical  scientists  have  been  compelled  to 
halt  the  spirit  or  occult  science  begins. 

Nevertheless,  Huxley  and  others  have  done  their 
work  well  up  to  this  point,  and  I  only  object  to  their 
using  the  term  dead  matter  for  matter.  Subdivide 
it  as  small  as  you  please,  even  to  the  infinite  atom,  yet 
that  atom  is  but  the  expression  of  life,  for  life  could 
not  be  the  expression  of  matter.    Protoplasm,  I  will 


(  85  ) 

admit,  may  be  the  first  condition  in  which  object  or 
ponderable  matter  takes  on,  as  the  first  position,  the 
combination  assumed  before  changing  from  one  object 
life  to  another.  There  being  not  less  than  four  known 
substances, — oxygen,  carbon,  hydrogen,  and  nitrogen, 
— what  caused  them  to  come  together  to  form  one 
object  life  or  protoplasm?  Why  the  over-soul,  or  life 
fluid  of  the  physical  earth. 

Mr.  Huxley  speaks  of  converting  dead  protoplasm 
into  living  matter.  How  can  he  know  that  it  is  dead 
when  he  admits  that  oxygen  (air)  alone  contains  the 
germs  of  life.  He  here  falls  into  the  very  error  that 
lie  warns  others  to  beware  of,  to  wit,  "  That  only  is 
science  which  we  know,  and  not  that  which  we  do  not 
know."  As  Mr.  Huxley  does  not  know  of  any  other 
properties  in  the  protoplasm  than  the  four  elements 
mentioned,  does  it  follow  that  his  decision  is  final? 
He  cannot  testify  in  the  negative  and  record  it  as 
science.  For  instance,  he  denies  spirit.  May  not 
spirit  exist  and  Huxley  know  nothing  of  it?  May 
there  not  be  other  properties  in  the  protoplasm,  so 
attenuated  as  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  the  microscope 
or  retort  of  the  physical  scientist,  and  yet  be  within 
the  reach  of  the  occult  science  which  begins  where 
Huxley^s  physical  science  ends — that  is,  at  the  proto- 
plasm? 

As  far  as  the  physical  or  ponderable  earth  science 
goes,  I  agree  with  him  until  he  evidently  reaches  the 


(86  ) 

end  of  his  journey  and  finds  himself  in  a  most  deplor- 
able dilemma,  and  is  compelled  to  kill  his  last  pro- 
duction in  order  to  begin  again,  and  he  calls  it  the 
dead  matter  of  life  (protoplasm). 

Alas,  poor  matter,  why  must  ye  die?  What  does 
Mr.  Huxley  or  any  other  mortal  know  of  lifef  Can  he 
see  it,  weigh  it,  or  comprehend  it  at  all?  O  ye  mighty 
minds  of  earth,  pray  tell  me  of  what  manner  or  combi- 
nation is  the  death  of  life,  or  in  what  condition  the 
cadaver  finds  itself! 

Let  us  see :  He  uses  the  words  "•  matter  of  life," 
which  would  imply  that  matter  was  derived  from  or 
produced  from  life,  the  one  being  a  thing  capable  of 
being  separated  from  the  other  the  same  as  the  oil  of 
tar,  attar  of  rose,  etc.  Now,  we  take  away  or  destroy 
the  matter,  and  we  have  the  life  remaining.  The 
question  then  arises.  What  is  this  remainder?  By 
what  means  does  the  average  sense  of  comprehension 
recognize  it  as  a  known  truth?  Is  it  a  physical  thing, 
condition,  or  what?  Can  you  demonstrate  it  (life) 
by  physical  science?  I  think  not ;  and  yet  it  is  a  known 
or  scientific  truth,  for  it  exists.  Then,  if  it  is  not  a 
physical,  is  it  not  an  occult  scientific  truth?  Is  it  not 
also  infinite?  Being  infinite,  how  can  you  destroy  it? 

He  draws  his  deduction —  and  it  is  only  a  deduc- 
tion— that  life  ceases  when  motion  ceases,  taking  it 
for  granted  that  when  motion  ceases  in  matter  there 
life  ceases.    But  has  motion  ceased  to  be  in  the  proto- 


(87  ) 

plasm  merely  because  the  microscope  fails  to  record 
it?  Is  it  not  an  acknowledged  fact  by  all  scientists 
that  no  matter  whatever  is  in  an  absolute  state  of  rest? 
Why,  his  very  theory  of  the  chalk  ages,  the  gradual 
rising  from  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  requiring  vast 
cycles  of  time,  shows  that  the  motion  must  have  been 
so  slow  as  to  be  entirely  beyond  the  reach  of  any 
microscope;  and  Mr.  Huxley  or  any  other  scientist, 
I  think,  will  acknowledge  that  where  there  is  motion 
there  must  be  energy ,  and  where  there  is  energy  there 
must  be  life. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  however  reluctant  physic, 
scientists  may  be  to  acknowledge  the  truth,  the  com- 
ponent parts,  quality  or  quantity  of  life,  are  entirely 
beyond  their  comprehension.  They  cannot  deny  that 
life  exists ;  they  acknowledge  it  is  not  matter.  Then, 
if  it  is  not  spirit,  what  is  it?  If  they  do  not  know  what 
life  is,  how  dare  they  say  that  they  can  destroy  it. 

Physical  scientists  have  always  claimed  that  the 
foundation  of  all  science  is  not  to  accept  any  phenome- 
non as  truth  until  it  has  been  absolutely  proven  so  to 
the  sense  of  comprehension  by  often-repeated  investi- 
gation. Then,  by  this  very  particular  rule  of  caution, 
they  should  not  deny  a  phenomenon  (such  as  spirit, 
for  instance)  or  any  other  thing  that  they  had  not  as 
equally  exhaustively  investigated.  Hence  in  my  deduc- 
tion when  Mr.  Huxley  denies  spirit,  a  truth  that  many 
thousands  of  intelligent  people  can  swear  to,  I  can 


(  88  ) 

come  to  but  one  conclusion,  and  that  is  that  he  never 
propei^ly  or  fairly  investigated  it. 

Mr.  Huxley  is  somewhat  severe  on  the  theologians, 
and  perhaps  justly  so.  However,  those  Avho  live  in 
glass  houses  should  not  throw  stones.  He  says  the 
lobster  dies,  and  thereby  furnishes  dead  protoplasm 
to  a  live  man,  who  eats  it  and  converts  it  into  live 
protoplasm.  The  man  is  drowned  and  furnishes  dead 
protoplasm  to  the  live  lobster,  Avho  eats  it  and  con- 
verts it  into  live  protoplasm.  Or,  in  other  words,  the 
Church  proves  her  religion  right  by  the  Bible,  and  the 
Bible  right  by  her  religion.  He  acknowledges  that 
his  lobster  evidence  is  somewhat  lame  for  a  scientist 
to  advance  when  he  calls  it  'paradoxical^  and  so  do 
some  others. 


(89) 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

PROPHECY,    OR    HOW     COMING     EVENTS     CAST     THEIR 
SHADOWS  BEFORE. 

( February  7,  1897.    Beginning  of  third  series. ) 

We  feel  it  advisable  to-day  to  give  you  a  brief  out- 
line of  the  probability  of  the  actual  truth  of  the  above 
much  disputed  but  existing  fact  by  drawing  a  com- 
parison with  those  truths  which  your  physical  life  has 
already  demonstrated  to  you  as  facts,  in  the  follow- 
ing manner :  Let  a  man  stand  on  the  ocean  beach  at 
the  incoming  of  the  tide,  when  a  beautiful  calm  rests 
upon  its  glorious  surface,  and  note  the  little  wavelets 
as  they  roll  inward  towards  your  feet.  He  will  see 
each  succeeding  wave  drawing  nearer  and  nearer.  The 
little  child  of  five,  standing  at  his  side,  whose  reason- 
ing faculties  are  just  beginning  to  bud,  inquires: 
"  What  makes  the  waves  keep  growing  higher  and 
higher?  W^here  does  the  water  come  from,  father,  and 
how  far  will  the  next  wave  come?  "  He  takes  the  little 
one  and  raises  him  in  his  arms  that  he  may  the  better 
see  and  comprehend  the  lesson,  and  points  out  to  him 
a  slight  shadow  far,  far  out  on  the  bosom  of  this 


(90) 

mighty  ocean  (of  time)  and  tells  him  to  carefully  keep 
his  eye  on  the  one  spot  and  watch  it  and  note  the  re- 
sults. He  sees  it  creeping  nearer  and  plainer  until  he 
discovers  that  the  shadow  is  caused  by  what,  at  first, 
was  the  slightest  and  apparently  insignificant  rising 
of  the  surface  of  the  (then  passing  events)  water;  and 
more,  he  learned  that  as  it  rolled  it  gathered  in  im- 
portance until  it  spent  its  force  on  a  more  substantial 
substance,  the  sand  (of  time) .  And  as  he  stood  on  the 
border  of  this  ocean  of  time  for  thousands  of  years, 
gathering  knowledge  and  wisdom,  by  carefully  and 
accurately  noting  the  effect  of  each  and  every  wave, 
he  found  he  could,  by  comparing  notes,  figure  out 
almost  to  a  grain  of  sand  the  exact  amount  of  change 
that  would  occur  at  the  breaking  of  a  wavelet,  and 
also  the  proportionate  amount  of  force  and  change 
(evolution)  that  would  take  place  at  the  incoming  or 
far-off  wave  that  the  spirit  eye  of  this  old  man  of  the 
sea  then  saw  in  its  first  or  incipient  formation  far,  far 
out  on  the  bosom  of  time.  From  that  high  and  exalted 
position  to  which  he  had  unconsciously  grown  in  the 
long  lapse  of  time — say  ten  thousand  years — when, 
like  Rip  Van  Winkle,  he  suddenly  bethinks  himself  to 
look  at  his  feet,  when  lo !  he  discovers  that  his  father 
has  gone,  himself  hath  grown  to  knowledge,  and  he 
beholds  still  another  little  boy  of  five  at  his  feet  seek- 
ing knowledge  of  Truth. 

And  now,  my  student  friend,  to  again  appeal  to  your 


(91  ) 

reasoning  faculties,  the  father  can  give  to  the  child 
only  that  amount  of  knowledge  which  it  is  qualified 
to  receive;  he  would  be  a  poor  teacher  should  he  at- 
tempt to  explain  to  the  child  b}^  a  reference  to  chem- 
istry or  algebra,  knowing  such  a  course  would  confuse 
instead  of  enlighten.  Just  so  is  it  with  the  lower 
sphere  of  spirit  life ;  while  they,  the  lower  spirits,  who 
have  but  reached  the  first  level  above  you,  and  un- 
doubtedly are  qualified  to  teach  you  only  the  primary 
lessons y  or  only  such  as  you  can  receive,  so  they,  the 
lower  spirits,  again  are  taught  to  the  full  amount  of 
their  capacity  to  receive,  by  yet  higher  spirits;  and 
thus  it  is,  on  and  on,  ad  infinitum.  You  will  be  pleased 
to  remember,  as  a  father,  that  you  as  such  cannot  re- 
trograde and  become  a  little  child  and  teach  with  a 
child's  understanding,  being  at  the  same  time  mind- 
ful that  even  a  little  child  can  sometimes  ask  ques- 
tions, and  that,  while  you  are  well  aware  of  the  solu- 
tion of  the  question,  you  find  yourself  utterly  at  a  loss 
how  to  convey  or  impart  that  knowledge  of  Truth  to 
the  child  in  such  a  way  that  it  will  not  be  misleading, 
and  thereby  become  an  injury  instead  of  a  blessing  to 
the  budding  mind. 

By  this  lesson,  my  friend,  you  will  perceive  that  one 
more  link  is  forged  in  the  chain  of  the  truth  of  evolu- 
tion. 


(92) 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  GREAT  OVER-SOUL^  OR  GOD,  AND  ITS  AFFINITY  TO 
MATTER. 

February  8, 1897. — My  dear  friend :  Having  already 
explained  to  some  extent  the  existence  of  the  infinite 
atom  of  matter  and  its  unfoldment  through  the  neb- 
ular formation  of  the  various  planets  now  existing, 
Tiud  hoping  we  have  succeeded  in  clearing  away  the 
cobwebs  and  rubbish  of  ignorance,  fanaticism,  and 
superstition  from  your  mind,  you  will  now  find  your- 
self in  a  free  condition  to  know  and  comprehend  the 
true  relation  of  the  Great  Spirit  to  matter. 

As  at  first  we  began  at  the  small  end  or  atomic  for- 
mation to  better  fit  your  small  capacity  for  the  psychic 
or  mystic,  so  now  we  will  begin  at  the  large  end — i.  e., 
the  over-soul — of  infinite  life,  matter,  and  space,  at 
least  as  far  as  spirit  comprehension  can  reach  out, 
and  convey  to  you  our  knowledge.  In  order  to  do  this 
as  effectively  as  possible,  we  deem  it  advisable  to  sub- 
mit to  you  one  or  more  geometrical  illustrations  as 
we  proceed.  The  first  shall  be  a  cross-section  of  the 
earth  and  spheres,  showing  the  life  forces  or  spirit 
conditions   which   we   have  formerly   spoken   of  as 


(  93  ) 

imponderable  matter  owing  allegiance  to  our  sun 
but  belonging  to  the  earth  planet,  and,  by  a  close  study 
of  this  progressed  matter,  which  is  shown  on  the  draw- 
ing in  the  form  of  rings.  As  you  will  perceive,  they 
are  very  dense  near  the  surface  of  the  earth  and 
become  more  and  more  ethereal ized  as  they  progress 
for  thousands  of  miles  outward  in  every  direction, 
forming  a  perfect  sphere  in  shape  until  you  will  ob- 
serve that  they  interblend  with  the  neighboring 
planets  of  your  solar  system.  This  field  is  your  spirit 
world  or  the  first  spirit  home  or  sphere.  (See  illus- 
tration.) 

We  will  now  proceed  to  give  you  a  brief  description 
of  the  spherical  illustration,  first  begging  the  privilege 
of  a  few  supplementary  remarks.  In  viewing  this 
plan  you  will  please  understand  that  where  we  show 
the  undeveloped  atoms  of  niatter  extending  to  the 
utmost  limit  of  imagination,  yet  they  possess  life 
and  this  life  principle  or  fluid  (call  it  what  you  will) 
owes  allegiance  to  the  great  center  or  over-soul  of 
space. 

Now,  you  will  notice  first,  the  birth  or  dawning  of 
a  nebula,  which,  after  the  fullness  of  time,  becomes 
an  aerolite.  This  aerolite  will  become  a  comet,  which 
seems  to  you  to  be  wandering  through  space  without 
any  fixed  position  in  any  constellation;  but,  my 
friend,  you  are  wrong,  for  from  the  first  joining  of  the 
first  two  atoms  together,  at  that  moment  it  had  a  pur- 


(94  ) 

pose,  very  slight  and  almost  imperceptible  at  the  be- 
ginning, but,  as  it  increased  in  its  accumulation  of  the 
atoms  of  matter,  it  started  on  its  journey  through 
space,  faster  and  faster,  attracting  other  atoms  unto 
and  after  it ;  the  atoms  rush  towards  the  comet  as  it 
grows  in  bulk,  which  increases  its  power  of  attraction, 
and  these  streams  of  atomic  substance  are  called  by 
your  astronomers  its  tail.  Now,  my  friend,  stop  here 
and  consider  for  a  moment  the  absurdity  of  such  an 
assertion  as  a  comet  having  two  or  more  tails — some 
located  on  its  side,  and  some  in  front  of  it. 

Some  of  these  new-born  worlds  are  small,  while 
others  are  many  thousands  of  times  larger  than  your 
earth;  some  of  the  smaller  ones  will  condense  into  a 
star  like  we  show  you  at  the  moon  and  become  fixed 
in  their  positions,  while  others  are  still  traveling  in 
space  and  gradually  drawing  to  the  center  of  their 
destiny,  some  of  which  you  recognize  as  shooting- 
stars,  but,  as  they  become  fixed  in  their  particular 
place  in  space,  they  form  one  member  of  that  family. 
So  you  will  see  by  the  illustration  that  as  the  star  is 
the  father  to  and  governs  the  aerolite  family,  so  does 
the  moon  become  father  to  and  govern  the  star  and  its 
family ;  and  again,  the  earth,  in  like  manner,  becomes 
father  to  its  moon  and  fixed  stars.  So,  again,  our  sun 
becomes  father  to  and  governs  or  influences  the  earth. 
Mars,  and  the  balance  of  our  planetary  system.  Then, 
again,  our  sun  and  its  numerous  family  of  neighbor- 


THE   VORTEX    WHIRL 


(96  ) 

ing  suns,  become  children  to  the  second  sun,  or  Po- 
laris, and  so  on,  with  one  spherical  system  overlapping 
another,  until  it  reaches  the  limit  of  comprehension. 
And  I  think  you  will  admit  that  the  limit  is  reached 
Avhen,  by  a  continuous  multiplication  of  these  systems, 
the  periphery  of  the  last  sphere  becomes  so  great  that 
its  surface  forms  a  straight  plane.  This  is  a  problem 
in  your  practical  geometry,  to  wit:  If  you  place  a 
circle  within  a  square,  and  a  square  within  this  circle, 
and  repeat  a  circle  within  the  square,  what  will  be  the 
last  figure  that  you  can  place  within?  We  will  tell 
you — a  circle;  for,  as  the  circle  or  sphere  represents 
the  atom,  and  contains  the  greatest  amount  of  matter 
within  the  least  amount  of  surface  area,  it  will  repre- 
sent the  infinite  fraction  of  subdivision.  Now,  we  will 
begin  where  you  began,  at  the  square,  and  go  the  other 
way,  and  place,  say,  two  circles  side  by  side,  and 
around  these  describe  another  circle;  place  two  of 
these  greater  circles  side  by  side,  and  so  on,  repeating. 
What  will  the  result  be,  and  how  will  you  describe  it 
or  illustrate  it  except  by  a  straight  line  or  surface 
that  would  be  the  infinite  of  space?  If  you  should 
think  otherwise,  just  imagine  yourself  starting  on  a 
journey  and  follow  this  straight  line.  Where  would 
you  fetch  up?  Why,  you  would  never  return  in  your 
mind.  Whereas,  if  it  were  the  last  conception  of 
a  circle  in  your  mind,  you  must  return  to  the  point  of 
beginning.     You  could  not  reverse  the  order  after 


(97  ) 

reaching  a  straight  line  and  describe  an  upward  curve, 
for  by  so  doing  you  would  return  to  a  circle  which 
would  compel  you  to  inclose  these  two  circles  that  you 
would  find  lying  side  by  side.  This  is  why  we  illus- 
trate the  boundary  of  space  by  a  straight  line,  as  the 
practical  limit  of  human  and  spirit  comprehension. 
Now,  around  IMars,  Saturn,  and  the  other  planets,  as 
well  as  around  the  various  stars  lying  within  the  cir- 
cle or  influence  of  your  sun,  they  each  and  every  one 
of  them  throw  off  a  progressed  or  imponderable 
matter  in  every  respect  the  same  as  that  emanating 
from  your  earth.  Of  course,  you  will  understand  that 
the  emanations  from  these  various  planets  are  not  all 
of  the  same  degxee  of  advancement,  some  of  them 
being  much  farther  advanced  and  some  less  than  the 
earth  planet.  As  you  already  understand,  these 
planets  and  stars  revolve  around  your  sun  the  same  as 
the  moon  and  some  stars  revolve  around  your  earth ; 
and  as  those  bodies  belonging  to  our  earth  revolve 
around  and  owe  allegiance  to  the  earth  as  its  especial 
family,  so  also  do  the  various  families  of  Mars,  Jupi- 
ter, Saturn,  etc.,  owe  allegiance  to  and  become  sepa- 
rate members  of  the  family  of  the  sun.  The  sun 
exercises  a  potent  influence  on  each  member  of  the 
family,  by  and  through  the  interblending  of  this  im- 
ponderable or  life  principle,  as  represented  by  the 
outer  rings  shown  in  the  illustration  of  the  earth. 
Now,  as  the  sun  and  its  immense  family  form  one 


(98) 

enormous  sphere  in  space,  which  we  will  call  the  solar 
sphere,  this  sphere  throws  off  a  super-refined  matter 
which  extends  outward  for  untold  millions  of  miles 
and  interblends  with  a  brother  system  of  solar  spheres 
in  precisely  the  same  manner  as  the  earth  influence 
blends  with  Mars;  and  thus  are  thousands  of  these 
immense  solar  systems  again  revolving  around  a  still 
greater  sun,  called  Polaris ;  and  so  this  compounding, 
or  wheel  within  a  wheel,  we  find,  extends  outwards, 
still  repeating  itself  in  boundless  space  until  it  passes 
all  spirit  comprehension. 

WHO  AND  WHAT  IS  GODf 

He  is  the  one  who  receives  your  log-book  at  the  end 
of  your  cruise  and  examines  the  contents  found  there- 
in with  a  just  and  critical  eye,  and  spreads  the  same 
upon  the  pages  of  the  journal  of  eternity.  He  is  the 
LIFE,  the  LAW,  and  the  CAUSE,  and  the  only  one 
who  is  PERFECT. 


(99) 


CHAPTER   XV. 

GOD^  LIFE^  OR  OVER-SOUL^  ARE  BUT  SYNONYMOUS  TERMS ; 
AND  LIFE  IS  ALL  THE  GOD  WE  KNOW. 

We  will  again  reverse  our  argument,  and  begin  at 
the  small  end — i.e.  the  atom.  When  a  number  of  atoms 
come  together  they  produce,  let  us  say,  a  monad,  or 
molecule.  The  combining  of  these  atoms  of  life  form 
a  family  of  atoms  centered  in  and  around  the  monad, 
which  is  the  over-life  or  one  life  of  the  monad.  When 
a  number  of  monads  come  together  as  a  family,  they 
produce  a  microbe  or  the  beginning  and  first  appear- 
ance of  physical  or  objective  life,  a  cell,  over  which, 
by  such  union  of  monads,  there  is  an  over-life  of  the 
microbe.  We  should  have  mentioned  that  at  the  first 
beginning  or  joining  of  the  first  two  atoms, — one 
being  positive,  the  other  negative, — one  of  these  atoms 
Avas  an  unprogressed  human  soul  from  out  of  the  in- 
finite matter  of  all  space.  This  might  have  been  the 
soul  of  an  apple  or  any  other  ponderable  or  objective 
matter ;  but  we  prefer  to  select  and  trace  up  the  line 
of  development  of  a  human  soul,  and  we  can  assure 
you  that  the  beginning  of  human  or  spirit  comprehen- 
sion begins  here,  at  the  ultimate  atom  of  substance. 

Now,  this  microbe,  by  that  over-life  of  matter,  seeks 
a  place  in  physical  matter  to  progress,  and,  by  this 


(  100  ) 

life  law  of  like  to  like,  it  is  attracted  to  the  ovum,  or 
egg,  through  sympathetic  attraction.  At  this  stage 
begins  a  psychic  condition,  the  truly  spiritual  ad- 
vancement of  that  soul,  depending  almost  entirely 
upon  the  physical  condition  that  from  this  point  sur- 
rounds and  accompanies  it  as  it  passes  through  the 
various  phases  of  its  earth  journey. 

When  the  child  is  born  into  the  world,  and  even 
before  it  reaches  a  reasoning  age,  you  will  observe  that 
the  mother  and  father  have  a  controlling  or  soothing 
influence  over  it.  Whence  cometh  this  controlling 
influence'^  Certainly  not  from  any  power  to  reason 
that  the  child  may  have  at  three  months  of  age.  The 
family  has  now  increased  to,  say,  six  children.  One 
of  these  children  becomes  very  sick  or  meets  with  a 
serious  accident,  and  there  is  felt  an  influence  which 
permeates  the  entire  family.  Let  the  parent  come  into 
the  nursery  during  an  angry  controversy,  without  the 
parent  speaking  a  word  discord  quietly  settles  down 
and  harmony  reigns.  Thus  Ave  endeavor  to  show  you 
that  that  w^hich  affects  one  member  of  the  family  is 
felt  by  the  entire  family.  This  mystic  influence  is  the 
one  over-life  of  that  collection  of  souls,  and  is  pro- 
duced by  the  close  unity  that  was,  little  by  little, 
added  together  as  the  number  increased.  Around 
this  family  has  accumulated  a  sphere  of  this  life  in- 
fluence or  sympathetic  attraction  and  repulsion. 
When  many  families  join  together,  as  in  a  city,  their 


(  101  ) 

loves  and  interests,  being  centered  in  the  well-being 
of  their  city,  form  a  sphere  around  this  city,  which  is 
the  over-life  of  the  city.  Many  cities  join  to  form  a 
state,  and  all  these  cities  are  interested  in  the  state  for 
its  weal  or  woe,  and  thus  again  is  a  life  sphere  of  this 
— we  will  call  it  fluid — formed  around  the  state.  So 
it  is  with  the  United  States,  to  be  again  repeated 
among  all  nations,  and  finally  throughout  the  world. 

And  thus  it  is  brought  to  pass  that  the  entire  civil- 
ized world  to-day,  having  a  sincere  desire  to  do  away 
with  wars  and  other  inharmonious  matter  by  the  best 
means  at  hand,  have  caused  to  be  felt  in  the  various 
over-lives  of  the  single  nations  that  same  desire 
through  the  medium  of  this  over-life  which  embraces 
all  nations,  and  thus  it  is  transmitted  to  the  state,  and 
from  thence  to  the  city,  and  again  to  the  family,  and 
from  the  family  to  the  individual  member.  As  this 
world  is  only  one  meinber  of  a  family  which  is 
governed  or  influenced  by  the  solar  system,  so  it  is 
enlarged  and  repeated  to  infinity,  by  which  you  will 
see  that,  while  the  city  has  an  influence  in  controlling 
your  affairs,  yet  you  are  at  the  same  time  a  free  agent 
in  which  your  slowly  developing  soul  admonishes  you, 
"As  ye  sow,  so  shall  jii  reap."  From  an  undeveloped 
atom  you  came  to  a  progressed  atom ;  you  return,  and 
thus  is  brought  to  pass  the  saying,  "  The  first  shall  be 
last,  and  the  last  shall  be  first  J' 

"Ashes  to  ashes,  and  dust  to  dust." 


(  102  ) 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

VITALITY  IN  STONES — LIFE  IS  FOUND  IN  ALL  THINGS. 
"It  does  move,  for  all  that." — Galileo. 

We  see  our  physical  scientists  are  somewhat 
startled  out  of  their  boots  by  Professor  von  Schroen's 
assertion  that  the  stones  do  move,  and  are  still  in- 
clined to  hang  onto  the  tail  of  the  Dark  Ages. 

As  I  understand  it,  the  professor  does  not  claim  to 
be  the  first  to  discover  motion  in  so-called  inanimate 
matter,  but  that  he  is  the  first  one  to  be  able  to  demon- 
strate it  in  an  indisputable  manner  by  a  record  of  its 
various  changes,  leaving  no  possible  room  for  a  doubt. 
Of  course,  there  is  always  to  be  found  in  the  ranks  of 
men  a  class  of  would-be  wiseacres  that  would  have  you 
to  understand  that  unless  the  thing  is  first  submitted 
for  their  approval,  why,  it  is  lunacy,  humbug,  impossi- 
ble, etc.,  which,  after  all,  only  serves  the  purpose  of 
demonstrating  to  us  poor  mortals  the  fallibility  even 
of  some  of  our  scientists. 

^^  CONSISTENCY^  THOU  ART  A  JEWEL.^^ 

Let  us  compare  a  few  well-known  scientific  facts 
with  Professor  von  Schroen's  assertion,  and  see  if  it 
is  so  very  remarkable,  after  all.     Science  teaches  us 


(103) 

that  nature  abhors  a  vacuum,  and,  in  like  manner,  she 
also  teaches  us  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  an  ahso- 
liite  state  of  rest.  Then,  if  not  at  rest,  it  (matter) 
must  have  motion,  its  velocity  being  a  secondary  con- 
sideration, which  von  Schroen  claims  to  be  the  first 
to  record,  and  by  so  recording,  leaves  your  wiseacres — 
where? 

And  now  for  a  few  acknowledged  facts  of  science. 
To  produce  change,  requires  motion;  to  produce 
motion,  requires  force;  to  produce  force,  requires 
energy  (or  animation)  ;  to  produce  energy,  requires 
life;  and  to  produce  life,  I  will  refer  you  to  Professor 
Huxley  and  his  protoplasm,  or  his  (Huxley's)  Physi- 
cal Basis  of  Life.  He  thought  he  had  it  dead  to  rights 
w^hen  he  submitted  his  lobster  story.  While  I  am  free 
to  admit  that  life  is  forever  beyond  all  human  com- 
prehension, and  it  is  only  by  the  above  law  of  natuif^ 
that  man  is  enabled  to  recognize  life  in  the  atom  o. 
matter,  and  it  is  further  corroborated  to  man  in  his 
dealings  with  the  elements  of  the  so-called  simple 
sixty-five  substances,  where  like  is  attracted  to  like  by 
this  power  of  life  or  sympathetic  attraction. 

'T  is  passing  strange  how  ready  some  men  are  to 
sneer  at  and  positively  deny  the  discoveries  of  others, 
when  they  are  never  knowm  to  discover  truth  them- 
selves. How  far  would  the  world  be  advanced  over 
the  Dark  Ages  to-day  if  our  Galileos  were  to  be 
frowned  down  by  these  slow-going  know-it-alls? 


(  104  ) 

T  is  a  well-known  axiom  that  nature  builds  on  the 
one  side  but  to  tear  down  on  the  other,  and  this  change 
is  ceaseless.  This  incomprehensible  life-fluid  has  the 
power  and  does  permeate  and  flow  through  all 
objective  or  physical  matter,  leaving  a  part  of  its 
atomic  formation  to  advance  the  growth  of  the  object 
matter,  and  at  the  same  time  taking  away  from  the 
object  that  part  which  has  served  the  law  of  pro- 
gression or  evolution.  Note  the  passage  of  the  per- 
fume from  the  growing  apple  or  rose.  Is  it  not  matter 
whose  vibratory  waves  impinge  on  the  olfactory 
nerves? 

And  the  only  wonder  is  that  man  to-day,  after  all 
the  impediments  that  are  constantly  being  throAvn  in 
his  way,  has  succeeded  in  positively  recording  the 
velocity  of  said  change  in  so-called  inanimate  matter, 
there  really  being  no  such  a  thing  in  existence  as  in- 
animation^  or  matter  without  motion. 

As  we  now  have  the  matter  of  motion  in  stones  un- 
der consideration,  we  hope  the  student  will  excuse  us 
for  a  gradual  digression  from  the  caption  of  this  ar- 
ticle and  bear  with  us  as  we  swing  the  subject  around 
the  circle  to  better  demonstrate  the  law  of  matter  and 
motion  through  the  mystic  laAV  of  life  and  its  vehicle, 
the  atom  of  matter. 

Physical  science  has  thus  far  succeeded  in  subdi- 
viding matter  into  sixty- five  simple  substances. 
Thirty  years  ago  the  number  was,  I  think,  sixty-two. 


(  105  ) 

Whence  comes  this  increase  of  number?  We  will  tell 
vou.  It  was  the  slow  but  sure  advance  or  evolving  of 
truth,  which  must  inevitably  follow  in  the  footsteps 
of  evolution.  By  this  increase  you  are  warned  that 
the  end  of  knowledge  is  not  yet. 

A  NEW  SUBSTANCE. 

We  here  predict  to  you  that  before  this  generation 
shall  have  i^assed  the  Kubicon  of  physical  life  there 
will  be  discovt^^ed  several  so-called  new  substances, 
prominent  among  which  will  be  a  substance  that  has 
the  power  to  flow  through  all  objective  matter,  carry- 
ing with  it,  among  other  things,  the  secret  of  disease 
and  health.  While  this  mystic  substance  is  at  this 
time  positively  known  to  have  existence  by  some  of  the 
advanced  thinkers  and  experimentalists,  it  at  the 
same  time  is  comparatively  unknown  to  classified 
science.  To  satisfy  yourself  of  this  fact  converse  with 
some  conscientious  and  intelligent  so-called  magnetic 
healer — we  mean  one  avIio  has  made  many  successful 
cures,  and  not  a  pretender.  He,  or  she,  will  tell  you 
there  is  a  positive  physical  force  w^hich  sometimes 
passes  through  their  body  and,  at  times,  feels  like  a 
heavy  chill  which  shakes  them  from  their  head  to  their 
heels ;  and  as  we  have  already  proven  to  you  that  mo- 
tion (the  chill)  is  the  effect  of  force  acting  on  sub- 
stance or  matter  you  can  readily  see  that  the  healer 


(  106  ) 

receives  a  mystic  something  which  passes  through  his 
skin  into  his  nerves,  and  from  him  into  the  patient. 
As  there  are  but  three  infinite  truths, — life,  matter, 
and  space, — it  naturally  follows  that  it  is  not  life 
alone,  but  matter  of  some  kind  yet  to  be  classified  or 
harnessed  for  man's  benefit  when  better  understood, 
and  the  sooner  your  medical  doctors  give  this  sub- 
stance a  closer  investigation  (catch  on,  so  to  speak,) 
and  stop  displaying  their  intolerable  ignorance  by 
howling  about  Galileo  being  a  crank,  humbug,  etc.,  the 
quicker  they  will  find  themselves  at  the  head  of  their 
profession. 

As  this  same  law  has  power  to  pass  matter  through 
one  physical  body  into  another,  leaving  a  load  of  new 
material,  and  in  its  outward  passage  carting  away  the 
debris,  should  it  be  considered  as  anything  remarkable 
that  the  same  law  should  be  applied  to  the  vegetable 
kingdom?  And  if  it  is  applicable  to  the  vegetable, 
why  not  to  the  mineral  or  stone? 

We  have  already  shown  you  how  the  grain  of  corn 
is  built  up  by  the  gradual  addition  of  atoms,  while 
nt  the  same  time  it  is  subject  to  health  and  disease 
while  undergoing  its  earth  development.  Now,  this 
very  same  process  of  growth  applies  to  the  mineral  or 
stone.  A  lump  of  gold  was  not  produced  in  a  moment 
of  time;  your  iron  ore  is  the  result  of  a  slow  atomic 
growth ;  and  all,  all  known  objective  matter  is  but  the 
result  of  a  slow  process  of  atomic  formation  or  growth. 


(  107  ) 

and,  as  we  have  before  stated,  Nature  builds  but  to 
tear  down,  or  integrates  to  disintegrate. 

There  are  many  well-known  instances  w^here  the 
rock  or  stone  becomes  rotten  or  dead,  which  is  only  in 
truth  a  process  of  a  separation  of  its  atomic  parts,  and 
by  that  well-known  analogical  law^  of  reason  if  a  thing 
has  a  so-called  death  it  must  have  had  a  birth;  in 
other  words,  it  must  first  be  born  or  integrate  before  it 
can  die  or  disintegrate. 


(108  ) 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

SPIRIT  THE  EFFECT  OF  A  PHYSICAL  CAUSE. 

June  1, 1897. — On  page  82  we  made  you  a  somewhat 
remarkable  assertion  that  man  had  but  one  natural 
sense,  or  that  he  did  not  see  with  his  eyes,  and  as  this 
question  will  naturally  have  a  connection  with  the  last 
article — i.  e.  motion  in  stones — we  will  continue  the 
subject  in  another  direction,  and  endeavor  to  make 
plain  to  your  understanding  where  the  dividing-line 
between  the  physical  science  and  the  occult  science 
crosses,  or  where  at  least  one  of  the  numerous  bridges 
is  located  that  cross  the  mystic  stream  between  the 
ponderable  and  imponderable,  and  where  you  will 
readily  see  how  it  is  possible  for  the  physical  to  grad- 
ually merge  into  and  produce,  from  a  physical  cause, 
a  spirit  or  imponderable  body.  The  brain  of  man  is 
divided  into  two  great  parts — the  right  and  left  lobes 
— which  is  also  the  positive  and  negative  position 
that  all  objective  matter  assumes.  The  tw^o  lobes  we 
will  call  one  family,  made  up  of  separate  members. 
Each  member  of  the  family  has  its  especial  work  to 
accomplish  in  its  journey  through  life  development  or 
progression. 


(  109  ) 

We  will  take  up  the  especial  work  of  one  member 
of  this  family  and  follow  it  on  in  its  work,  namely, 
color.  The  eye  receives  the  vibratory  waves  of  the 
physical  matter  of  color  called  red,  and  impinges  this 
vibration  of  matter  in  motion  on  the  optic  nerve.  This 
nerve  is  a  vast  accumulation  of,  let  us  say,  wires  which 
were  not  all  formed  at  the  birth  of  the  child,  but  were 
formed  as  the  child  advanced  in  age,  and  were  pro- 
duced as  the  child  required  them.  The  wires  of  red 
run  directly  to  a  single  cell  which  forms  a  group  of 
cells  in  the  brain,  whose  duty  in  the  working  of  the 
brain  is  to  receive  and  record  on  the  entire  brain  the 
laws  which  determine  the  various  colors.  Hence  you 
will  hear  of  color-blindness  or  partial  color-blindness 
— i.  e.  a  man  may  be  insensible  to  the  color  of  blue,  and 
yet  retain  a  sense  of  all  the  other  colors,  which  we  will 
explain  by  saying  that  the  particular  ivire  running 
from  the  optic  nerve  to  the  blue  cell  has  become  inop- 
erative or  paralyzed,  or  the  cell  itself  may  be  para- 
lyzed, or  the  Avhole  group  or  section  of  the  brain 
pertaining  to  color  may  have  become  paralyzed  or  in- 
operative by  disease,  which  would  result  in  total 
color-blindness.  Again,  this  whole  section  of  the 
brain,  which  is  the  life  of  and  receives  all  vibrations 
of  matter  through  the  eye,  may  become  inoperative, 
which  would  result  in  temporary  or  total  blindness, 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  disease.  This  same 
condition  applies  to  the  olfactory  nerve,  the  auditory 


(  no  ) 

nerve,  the  nerve  of  taste,  and  the  nerve  of  touch; 
hence  you  will  see  that  all  of  the  so-called  five  senses 
submerge  into  one,  which  is  the  sense  of  touchy  or  feel- 
ing of  matter  coming  into  contact  with  other  matter, 
generally  understood  as  vibratory  waves,  and  all  of 
chese  subdivisions  of  the  sense  are  of  a  slow  and  grad- 
ual development,  receiving  each  its  particular  share 
of  knowledge  in  its  passage  through  life,  and  storing 
it  away — where?  Certainly  not  in  the  nerve  cell  of 
gray  matter,  as  matter  in  bulk,  or  the  shell  would 
burst  from  the  accumulation  of  matter,  especially 
when  acting  as  a  judge  where  you  were  compelled  to 
listen  to  a  long-winded  lawyer. 

The  brain  is  merely  a  machine  to  receive  the  highest 
progressed  matter.  After  these  waves  have  been  re- 
ceived on  the  brain,  they  leave  behind  them  the  life 
principle  in  the  form  of  imponderable  matter  or  mat- 
ter advanced  beyond  the  physical  earth  condition,  and 
form  a  surrounding  sphere  of  life  around  the  man, 
which  assumes  the  condition  of  a  spirit. 

The  writer  can  record  his  own  experience  in  the 
matter  of  smell.  Never  in  my  life  have  I  been  enabled 
to  smell  the  perfume  of  the  violet.  I  have  gathered 
large  bunches  in  my  hands  fresh  from  the  bed,  buried 
my  nose  in  them,  and  have  held  them  over  a  steaming 
kettle,  but  invariably  failed  to  note  the  slightest  frag- 
rance; and  yet  I  have  no  difficulty  in  sensing  the  per- 
fume of  other  flowers,  which  will  illustrate  to  you  that 


( 111 ) 

the  wave  motion  belonging  to  the  violet  perfume  finds 
nothing  to  receive  or  record  it  in  my  brain. 

There  is  also  another  subdivision  of  the  brain 
whose  duty  is  to  temporarily  record  the  work  of  these 
so-called  live  senses.  We  use  the  word  temporarily 
advisedly,  because  all  men  must  acknowledge  that 
memory  is  no  more  reliable  than  .sight y  sound,  and  the 
other  senses,  which  are  often  deceived ;  and  as  memory 
has  its  allotted  space  in  the  cavity  of  the  brain  the 
same  as  sight,  then  why  not  call  it  a  sense,  making 
six  senses?  We  know  by  experiment  that  there  is  a 
certain  spot  or  portion  of  the  brain  that  is  subject  to 
disease  or  disarrangement  the  same  as  the  other 
senses,  showing  all  the  peculiar  variations,  such  as: 
You  can  remember  some  things  that  occurred  ten 
years  ago,  while  you  have  entirely  forgotten  things 
that  occurred  five  years  ago.    (See  Chapter  XIX.) 

All  of  these  various  physical  effects  are  the  results 
of  ponderable  matter  acting  on  other  ponderable  mat- 
ter, or  merely  one  family  of  atoms  acting  on  a  larger 
family  of  atoms,  and  in  this  case  the  entire  brain  rep- 
resents one  human  family,  the  over-life  of  which  has 
the  faculty  of  reducing  the  general  results  of  the  labor 
of  its  various  members,  such  as  sight,  touch,  smell, 
etc.,  to  an  imponderable  condition  (it  still  being  mat- 
ter), from  which  condition  the  spirit  is  evolved.  This 
condition  of  spirit  surrounds  the  individual  or  soul, 
and  grows  as  he  grows  from  birth  upward.    Therefore, 


(  112  ) 

you  will  see  that  surrounding  conditions  are  the  spon- 
sor for  that  state  in  which  the  spirit  finds  itself  during 
your  earth  advancement,  and  in  this  manner  if  at  the 
beginning  of  childhood  you  surround  the  child  with 
nothing  but  vile,  obscene,  lying,  and  other  inharmoni- 
ous waves  of  sound,  and  while  the  wires  of  the  audi- 
tory nerve  are  just  beginning  to  bud.  Nature,  by  that 
law  of  the  fitness  of  things,  will  produce  that  kind  of 
a  deformed  brain  which  will  again  produce  a  deformed 
spirit,  and  the  same  law  applies  to  sight,  feeling,  etc. 
How  could  it  possibly  produce  that  of  which  it  had 
never  had  experience? 

This  spirit  condition  begins  with  the  birth  of  the 
child  and  is  of  a  gradual  growth  and  surrounds  the 
physical  man  during  his  earth  life,  the  quality  of 
which  is  determined  by  his  own  environments.  It  is 
this  imponderable  matter  surrounding  him  that  the 
spiritualist  and  theosophist  calls  his  atmosphere  and 
from  this  imponderable  matter  the  theosophist  claims 
that  his  astral  shell  is  produced  w^hile  we,  the  pro- 
gressed spirits,  will  tell  you  that  it  is  through  and  by 
this  atmosphere  that  we  are  enabled  to  produce  the 
various  phenomena  now  occurring  throughout  the 
earth  plane. 

To  further  illustrate  this  advanced  matter  called 
spirit  surroundings,  we  call  3^our  attention  to  your 
own  experience.  Have  you  not  at  times  been  engaged 
in  a  conversation  with  a  friend  and,  while  paying  par- 


(  113  ) 

ticular  attention  to  what  he  was  saying  and  giving  him 
a  proper  reply,  yet  at  the  very  same  moment  you  were 
thinking  of  something  else  entirely  foreign  to  the 
subject?  Now,  let  me  ask:  What  or  who  was  this 
silent  thought  emanating  from?  There  were  waves 
of  vibration ;  from  whence  came  they?  Was  it  not  the 
refined,  imponderable  matter  that  is  the  only  real  pari 
of  youy  the  /  AM ,  the  so-called  inner  conscience  or 
spirit  man,  the  part  that  never  disintegrates? 

Again,  when  you  have  retired  to  rest  and  have 
passed  into  that  profound  sleep  when  your  physical 
senses  such  as  sight,  hearing,  smell,  etc.,  are,  as  you 
must  admit,  lying  in  a  dormant  or  inactive  condition, 
yet  you  have  a  most  vivid  and  realistic  dream.  You 
plainly  distinguish  color,  smell,  taste,  etc.,  and  it  is 
so  real  that  upon  awakening  you  can  hardly  realize 
that  it  was  but  a  dream.  Here  is  one  of  the  evidences 
that  time  is  not  real,  only  man-made,  for  the  conven- 
ience of  recording  events ;  for  in  that  dream  you  found 
your  time  all  mixed  up,  and  also  in  that  dream  you 
realized  a  sort  of  vagueness ;  you  were  unable  to  con- 
nect facts,  dates,  and  conditions  systematically  to- 
gether. 

My  friend,  while  you  are  in  that  dreamy  state,  you 
are  in  the  same  state  that  many  spirits  who  have  just 
left  the  physical  body  and  entered  the  spirit  world  or 
imponderable  condition  of  life  find  themselves;  and 
this  dreamy  state  is  but  another  one  of  those  mystic 


( 114) 

bridges  that  leads  you  over  the  great  divide  from  the 
physical  to  the  occult  side  of  life  {the  pHychophjjHical 
state).  Here  on  the  spirit  side  of  life  many  spirits 
continue  on  and  on  for  a  long  time,  still  thinking  that 
they  are  dreaming,  and  advanced  spirits  find  it  some- 
times very  difficult  to  bring  them  to  a  realizing  sense 
of  their  condition. 


(115) 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

MATERIALIZATION. 

(June  9, 1897.) 

After  having  prepared  your  mind  to  receive  a  little 
more  light  in  regard  to  the  mystic  bridge  that  leads 
from  the  physical  to  the  occult,  we  will  call  your  at- 
tention to  the  very  difficult  situation  in  which  we  are 
placed  in  having  to  harmonize  the  spirit  and  the  phys- 
ical with  your  understanding.  We  feel  that  it  is  in- 
cumbent upon  us  to  advance  slowly,  taking  up  one 
subject  at  a  time,  or  being  careful  to  select  but  one 
bridge  at  a  time  for  you,  the  student,  to  investigate. 
By  so  doing,  our  object  will  be  to  confine  your  atten- 
tion to  the  one  particular  bridge  or  subject;  for  our 
experience  is,  that  a  very  great  majority  of  investiga- 
tors fail  in  comprehending  these  mystic  truths,  by 
endeavoring  to  cross  too  many  bridges  at  one  time, 
and  thereby  defeat  their  own  object,  by  their  confu- 
sion of  the  various  forces  used  by  the  spirits  in  pro- 
ducing the  numerous  phenomena;  and,  to  illustrate 
this,  we  will  now  take  up  the  phenomena  of  materiali- 
zation. 

When  you  are  looking  upon,  handling,  or  seeming 
to  converse  with  a  materialized  spirit,  we  will  say  that 
ninety-nine  out  of  one  hundred  are  very  apt  to  be  in  a 


(116) 

measure  deceived  and  led  to  invariably  draw  wrong 
deductions;  so  real,  so  lifelike  are  these  phenomena, 
that,  unless  the  investigator  is  constantly  on  his 
guard,  he  will  be  disappointed,  unsatisfied,  and  be- 
wildered ;  and  all  caused  by  his  own  ignorance  of  the 
real,  basic  facts  that  govern  the  phenomena. 

And  right  here  we  will  call  the  attention,  not  only 
of  the  younger  student,  but  also  of  many  old  veterans 
to  the  cause  of  their  often  becoming  unsatisfied  and 
apparently  mystified,  by  describing  the  real  state  of 
affairs,  as  follows : — 

The  body  that  you  really  see  and  touch  is  a  physical 
body — a  hody  only,  and  purely  automatic.  It  at  times, 
and  in  fact  quite  often,  will  be  made  up  in  the  exact 
image  of  your  friend ;  but  it  is  no  more  your  friend's 
body  than  a  wooden  post  is. 

This  body  is  made  up  by  purely  chemical  laws,  un- 
derstood and  operated  by  the  spirits  of  the  imponder- 
able atoms  of  matter  in  the  room,  and  of  which  you 
are  breathing,  and  also  of  other  matter  which  the 
spirits  find  in  space.  In  fact,  the  body  is  made  up  of 
several  substances  not  yet  fully  understood  by  your 
scientists,  as  we  have  already  remarked.  After  the 
body  is  made  up,  the  spirits  can  furnish  that  body 
with  the  power  to  locomote  a  short  distance  from  the 
medium  by  using  the  medium's  physical  forces,  and 
also  give  it  the  power  to  articulate,  using  again  the 
medium's  vocal  organs.  This  is  done  somewhat  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  hypnotist  controls  his  subject, 
both  in  motion  and  speech. 

The  hypnotic  subject  and  the  materialized  body  are 
mere  automatons,  controlled  entirely  by  the  will  of 


(  117  ) 

another.  The  materialized  body,  while  talking  to  you, 
has  no  more  knowledge  of  what  it  is  saying  or  doing 
than  a  parrot,  and  not  as  much.  When  you  ask  it 
questions,  the  controlling  influence  hears  you  ai  ^ 
causes  it  to  reply  to  your  question,  giving  you  as  coi  - 
rect  a  reply  as  the  control  can  sense  from  your  sur- 
roundings. 

This  is  the  common  practice  in  seances,  and  it  is  to 
be  deplored  to  this  extent :  the  medium  for  materiali- 
zation, as  a  general  rule,  is  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
so-called  higher  laws — for  what  is  higher  than  truth? 
—governing  his  own  seance,  and  is  really  as  much 
mystified  as  you  are.  But  the  almighty  dollar  must  be 
made,  for  the  spirit's  medium — or  they,  the  spirits — 
cannot  gratify  their  desire  to  communicate  with  mor- 
tals. They  are  well  aware  that  if  they  were  to  explain 
the  plain  truth,  their  occupation  would  be  somewhat 
curtailed.  Hence  it  is  to  their  interest  to  leave  you  to 
believe  you  are  talking  to  your  own  friends. 

We  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  saying  that  your 
own  spirit  friends  are  not  at  times  present  in  the 
room;  for  oftentimes  they  are,  and  can  convey  their 
thoughts,  in  a  measure  to  the  controlling  spirit  who 
manipulates  the  automaton.  To  test  this,  ask  your 
spirit  friends  when  you  meet  them  at  some  other 
medium's  seance,  what  they  told  you  at  the  other  se- 
ance. You  will  find  that  almost  the  invariable  answer 
is :  "/  do  not  knoio.  I  seem  to  forget/^  This  same  an- 
swer you  will  get  from  the  hypnotic  subject  after  his 
release  from  the  influence. 

However,  there  are  times  when  your  spirit  friends 
find  the  conditions  and  the  controlling  spirits  in  har- 


(  118  ) 

mony  with  the  spirit  and  yourself — i.  e.  your  atmos- 
phere— so  that  they  can  communicate  quite  plainly  to 
you ;  and  if  you  should  be  so  fortunate  as  to  visit  an- 
other medium  under  the  same  favorable  circumstances 
(which  is  very  rare),  they  could  give  you  only  scraps 
of  their  former  conversation. 

(June  10, 1897.) 

If  this  were  not  the  case,  and  the  spirit  of  your  fa- 
ther was  actually  occupying  this  materialized  body  at 
the  time,  made  up  to  look  exactly  like  your  father,  and 
was  capable  of  using  his  own  power  of  thought  or  in- 
telligence, then  why,  in  the  name  of  common  sense  and 
the  laws  of  philosophy,  can  he  not  answer  such  plain 
questions  as,  "  How  many  brothers  and  sisters  have 
I?  What  are  their  names?  Where  was  I  born?  ''  etc. 
It  has  always  been  asserted  (and  truthfully  so)  that 
these  phenomena  are  purely  scientific  facts,  and  oper- 
ated by  scientific  laws;  while  if,  on  the  other  hand, 
you  take  nothing  for  granted,  that  is  not  a  direct  ap- 
peal to  your  own  common  sense,  and  investigate  on  the 
line  of  a  purely  automaton  figure,  controlled  by  a 
psychical  law  similar  to  hypnotism,  which  is  already 
a  proven  scientific  fact,  then  this  seeming  unsatisfac- 
tory interview  of  a  materialized  spirit  will  be  fully 
explained  on  a  purely  scientific  basis. 

THE  OBJECT  OF  MATERIALIZATION. 

And  when  you  come  to  consider  the  object  of  spirit 
materialization  and  why  it  is  found  expedient  by  the 
spirits  to  produce  the  phenomena,  you  will  readily  see 


(119) 

its  usefulness,  which  we  will  endeavor  to  explain  to 
you. 

There  are  a  very  great  number  of  the  people  on 
earth  who  are  not  qualified  to  comprehend  any  very 
deep  subject,  who  generally  rely  upon  their  neighbors 
or  common  report  for  their  information  and  belief  to 
guide  them  on  their  journey  through  life,  being  too 
busy  seeking  after  the  almighty  dollar  to  spend  suf- 
ficient of  their  time  to  enable  them  to  separate  their 
belief  from  actual  knowledge.  The  spirits  recognize 
the  fact  that  these  people  can  be  reached  in  some  di- 
rection— if  not  by  their  love  of  knowledge,  then  by 
their  lower  animal  curiosity. 


ANIMAL  CURIOSITY. 

To  prove  that  the  animal  has  a  curiosity,  we  will 
suggest  that  you  place  a  horse  in  an  inclosed  lot; 
then  place  a  buffalo-robe  or  an  open  umbrella  on  or 
near  the  fence.  Now,  observe  the  horse,  keeping  your- 
self out  of  his  sight.  You  will  see  him  first  becoming 
frightened  (and  this  sometimes  applies  to  your  fir^' 
experience  in  a  seance  room)  ;  then  he  will  gradually 
begin  to  circle  around  the  further  side  of  the  inclosure, 
but  gradually  drawing  nearer  to  the  object  of  his 
fright,  until  he  can  smell  it  and  touch  it  with  his  nose. 
If  it  was  not  curiosity  in  him,  why  did  he  go  up  to  it? 
If  it  was  fear  alone  that  was  acting  on  his  sense,  he 
would  have  kept  as  far  away  from  it  as  the  fence 
would  allow.  Therefore,  by  this  same  known  law,  the 
spirits  can  and  do  approach  man  that  is  found  on  the 
lower  planes  of  life,  by  working  on  his  curiosity  in 


(  120  ) 

producing  such  phenomena  as  he,  like  the  horse,  can 
see,  smell,  hear,  and  touch. 

When,  after  awakening  his  lower  developments 
through  his  animal  curiosity  alone,  he  at  that  time 
having  but  little  spiritual  development,  sees,  and  light 
begins  to  dawn  on  his  comprehension,  and  slowly  he 
arrives  at  the  knowledge  that  it  might  be  possible — 
just  barely  possible — that  even  he  is  the  possessor  of 
a  soul,  and,  by  often  repeated  investigations,  he  comes 
to  the  conclusion  that,  if  he  possesses  a  soul,  it  must 
be  something  beyond  the  physical,  and  if  So,  must  it 
not  continue  after  the  so-called  death  of  the  body? 
Having  now  succeeded  in.  awakening  in  the  lower  man 
a  desire  to  investigate,  the  next  step,  then,  is  that  he 
finds  it  necessary  for  him  to  know  more  of  the  laws 
which  govern  these  phenomena,  if  he  wishes  to  arrive 
at  a  proper  understanding  of  the  truth. 

EDUCATED  PARROTS. 

This  class  of  people  may  be  highly  educated,  as  the 
world's  idea  of  education  goes ;  but  to  be  educated  in 
this  manner  does  not  imply  a  very  great  amount  of 
practical  knowledge  of  truth.  Take,  for  instance,  a 
doctor  of  medicine,  and  add  to  his  anatomical  knowl- 
edge a  knowledge  of  the  classics,  etc. ;  now  ask  him 
what  a  foot-pound  really  represents.  Again,  ask  him 
what  he  knoAvs  practically  of  life,  hypnotism,  magnet- 
ism, etc.  Take,  in  fact,  nine  out  of  ten  young  students 
just  fresh  from  college,  plastered  all  over  with  sheep- 
skins, medals,  and  diplomas,  crammed  to  the  brim  with 
education,  and  ask  them  to  give  you  a  practical  solu- 
tion of  matter  and  space,  the  cause  of  the  rotary  and 


(  121  ) 

revolutionary  movement  of  the  planets,  or  what  causes 
the  declination  of  the  earth's  axis,  etc.,  and  they  will 
either  stare  in  open-mouthed  wonder  at  your  audacity 
or  fall  into  that  childish  error  of  repeating,  parrot- 
like, some  ancient,  musty  quotation,  taught  to  them  by 
some  old  fossilized  fogy  that  will  neither  satisfy  you 
or  themselves. 

What  matters  it  whether  the  word  is  spelled  cor- 
rectly or  not,  whether  the  English  or  Greek  pronun- 
ciation is  correct,  or  whether  you  are  a  trained  elocu- 
tionist or  not,  if  you  have  a  practical  knowledge  of 
truth  and  common  sense?  Or  whether  it  be  called  a 
rose  or  a  stinkweed?  What  signify  words  after  all 
when  compared  to  the  actual  living  and  existing 
truth?  Words  are  but  man-made  and  often  lead  you 
into  a  serious  mistake  of  the  real  truth.  For  instance, 
you  are  educated  into  the  belief  that  there  is  such  a 
thing  in  existence  as  inanimation,  darkness,  cold,  a 
vacuum,  death,  time,  etc.  Wrong,  wrong,  all  wrong, 
my  friend ;  for  by  teaching  the  budding  mind  of  youth 
that  such  things  exist  only  beclouds  their  vision  of  the 
living  and  existing  truth,  which  in  after  years  of  their 
own  more  mature  minds  helps  to  blunt  and  obscure 
the  truth  when  they  come  to  try  and  harmonize  these 
false  gods  with  their  own  common  sense. 

One  of  the  greatest  stumbling-blocks  the  spirits 
find  in  their  way  to  a  proper  explanation  of  the  occult 
science,  is  your  improper,  indefinite,  and  misleading 
words  called  language.  Your  language  is  behind  the 
age  in  which  you  live  and  badly  needs  overhauling 
to  fit  the  many  newly  discovered  truths,  not  only  by 
addition,  but  by  subtraction. 


(122) 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THAT    WHICH    THINKS    THOUGHTS^    OR    BIRTH    OF    THE 
SPIRIT  BODY. 

(June  11,  1897.) 

We  will  now  proceed  to  build  you  another  bridge 
over  the  mystic  stream  that  is  supposed  to  run  be- 
tween the  physical  and  the  occult,  sometimes  known 
as  the  River  Styx,  and  will  endeavor  to  show  you  how 
physical  matter  is  gradually  transformed  or  changed 
into  the  imponderable  or  spirit  matter ;  and  we  pray 
you  to  watch  and  weigh  carefully  every  step  you  take 
in  crossing  this  bridge,  and  satisfy  your  mind  whether 
or  not  it  is  a  direct  appeal  to  philosophy  and  your  own 
common  sense.  And  as,  in  the  preceding  chapter,  we 
selected  but  one  of  your  senses  and  applied  but  one  ob- 
ject of  matter,  so  will  we  proceed  in  this  discourse,  and 
will  select  the  sense  of  smell  and  the  progress  of  the 
apple,  which  rule  of  progression  will  apply  to  all 
other  waves  of  perfume. 

The  apple  is  built  up  in  two  directions,  or,  more 
properly  speaking,  by  two  active  forces  of  energy ;  one 
by  way  of  the  sap  beneath  the  bark,  and  the  other  by 
means  of  this  substance  we  have  before  spoken  of  as 
carrying  with  it,  among  other  things,  the  secret  of 
disease  and  health.    In  this  discourse,  we  will  call  it 


(  123) 

the  vehicle  that  conveys  the  unprogressed  atom,  which 
at  all  times  is  seeking  a  means  of  advancing  and  un- 
folding to  its  highest  earth-development.  The  atom 
of  matter  which  is  in  affinity  to  the  apple  is  conveyed 
along  its  journey  until  brought  in  contact  with  the 
growing  apple,  and,  with  the  assistance  of  this  energy, 
is  passed  through  the  skin  of  the  apple  and  takes  its 
place  among  the  family  of  atoms  that  is  engaged  in 
building  up  the  object,  or  perfect  apple.  These  single 
atoms  are  not  lying  idle  in  their  new  position,  but  are 
constantly  in  motion,  something  like  bees  in  the  comb, 
bringing  with  them  on  their  arrival  certain  elements 
and  departing  when  their  work  in  that  direction  is 
accomplished,  by  means  of  this  same  subtle  fluid-sub- 
stance or  vehicle — call  it  what  you  may — carrying 
with  them  that  atom  of  matter  which  has  done  its 
work  in  the  apple.  Then  this  outgoing  atom  finds  it- 
self in  an  advanced  condition  from  that  in  which  it 
found  itself  when  it  first  entered  the  apple,  and  is 
recognized  by  man  as  the  perfume  of  the  appla  And 
you  will  here  admit  that  this  flow  of  matter  is  con- 
stant from  the  blossom  to  the  mature  apple,  and  can- 
no.t  for  one  moment  be  denied  that  it  is  in  the  form  of 
vibrating  waves. 

And  now  a  question,  please.  If  all  vibratory  waves 
are  not  matter  in  motion,  then,  in  the  name  of  com- 
mon sense,  what  are  they?  You  are  aware  that  there 
could  be  no  such  thing  as  motion  without  some  thing 
to  move.  In  this  case,  the  thing  moved  was  the  on- 
ward march  of  the  progressive  atom  of  the  apple,  still 
seeking  further  means  and  opportunity  to  advance  in 
the  grand  and  wonderful  order  of  evolution. 


(124) 

In  their  second  stage  of  progression,  they  come  in 
contact  with  the  olfactory  nerve,  and  from  thence 
they  are  conveyed  to  the  particular  cell  in  the  brain 
whose  duty  it  is  to  receive  and  record  the  perfume  of 
an  apple;  and,  while  acting  on  this  brain-cell,  it  finds 
it  has  undergone  another  or  second  birth,  and  has 
again  changed  to  a  still  more  refined  or  advanced  con- 
dition and  slightly  begins  to  understand  the  condition 
that  the  imponderable  matter  assumes.  The  work 
that  this  atom  found  it  was  called  upon  to  do  in  the 
brain-cell  was  to  leave  a  physical  impression  on  the 
brain,  called  a  Think;  and  at  this  stage  it  is  only  a 
think ;  for  this  cell  is  subject  to  disease  and  disinte- 
gration, in  which  case  the  think  will  have  become  lost, 
so  to  speak.    This  is  immediate  cognition. 

Perhaps  the  expression  may  somewhat  wrinkle  the 
sheepskin  of  our  college  professors  and  cause  you  to 
smile ;  therefore,  we  will  explain  what  we  mean  by  a 
Think.  You  will  observe  that  we  started  to  build  this 
bridge  on  one  single  atom  of  matter,  or  that  which 
thinks  thought.  Now,  try  to  comprehend  or  define  the 
amount  of  space,  by  the  three  dimensions  of  length, 
breadth,  and  thickness,  that  this  ultimate  atom  would 
occupy,  and  then  consider  that  there  is  located  in  the 
brain  a  cell,  especially  provided  to  receive  that  partic- 
ular kind  of  an  atom,  and  whose  duty  it  is,  to  refine  or 
separate  the  gross  from  the  finer  matter,  passing  the 
finer  on  its  journey;  then,  at  this  stage,  would  be 
produced  the  first  conception  or  single  atom  that  is 
required  to  build  or  produce  a  concept,  or  Thought, 
And  as  a  Avhole  thought,  like  the  apple,  requires  a 
number  of  atoms  in  its  construction,  then  a  single 


( 125 ) 

atom  is  but  one  integral  part,  or  si  Think;  which  we 
think  (excuse  the  bull)  will  better  represent  the  singu- 
lar number,  and  in  this  first  stage  of  conception,  is 
not  a  full-blown  or  crystallized  thought  until  it  is 
passed  into  the  keeping  of  that  whole  section  of  the 
brain  pertaining  to  smell ;  and  from  this  explanation 
we  will  proceed. 

This  think,  or  special  wave,  does  not  become  knowl- 
edge until  the  cell  performs  its  work  on  it,  similar  to 
the  service  the  growing  apple  rendered  it.  This  cell 
then  renders  a  report  to  that  particular  portion  or 
family  of  the  brain  whose  work  is  to  receive  and 
classify  all  sense  of  smell,  and  when  this  is  done  its 
duty  is  to  impinge  on  or  report  its  work  to  the  whole 
brain,  when  a  third  birth  of  matter  takes  place  and  it 
assumes  the  form  of  gross  or  physical  knowledge.  Up 
to  this  stage,  it  is  almost  purely  a  mechanical  opera- 
tion or  animal  condition,  and  in  man  is  recognized  as 
your  first  or  physical  sense,  which  is  built  up  of  the 
refined  atoms  of  the  various  substances  of  earth, 
which,  like  the  atom  of  the  apple,  are  seeking  the 
means  and  opportunity  to  advance.  This  is  the  birth 
of  conception. 

NoW;  my  friend,  we  have  brought  you  to  about  the 
middle  of  our  bridge,  or  the  dawning  of  light  and 
knowledge,  from  out  of  the  physical  and  grosser 
matter  of  earth.  And  right  at  this  point  you  will 
observe  how  necessary  it  is  for  you  to  be  careful  in 
selecting  the  surroundings  of  the  building  mind  of 
childhood,  for  these  laws  are  but  the  mills  of  the  god.i, 
who  grind  slow,  sure,  and  exceedingly  fine,  whose 
work  is  inevitable  from  cause  to  effect. 


(  126  ) 

And  now  we  will  proceed  to  the  fourth  birth.  The 
duty  of  the  entire  brain  is  to  receive  the  various  re- 
ports or  work  of  its  separate  groups  or  families  and 
their  e:\periences  and  to  assort  out  and  strike  a  mean 
value  of  their  separate  works,  which  we  will  call,  for 
the  want  of  a  better  name,  the  family  that  Thmk^ 
Thoughts.  At  this  stage,  the  atom  finds  it  has  reached 
a  condition  that  is  but  little  short  of  imponderosity, 
and  is  associated  with  innumerable  atoms  in  like  con- 
dition,  and  this  family  of  atoms  constitutes  the  purely 
physical  or  animal  intelligence  that  accompanies  your 
first  or  physical  body  through  its  life  journey.  The 
duty  or  work  of  this  family  is  to  select  the  refined 
matter  of  thought  and  to  reject  or  throw  off  that  part 
which  has  not  yet  reached  a  sufficient  development. 

At  this  point,  you  will  see  that  the  judgment  neces- 
sary to  a  proper  selection  is  dependent  on  all  previous 
conditions  of  the  body  while  in  a  state  of  progression, 
the  first  paving  the  way  for  the  second,  and  so  on. 
Hence  you  can  now  comprehend  why  the  surround- 
ing conditions  are  responsible  for  a  perfect  body ;  for 
the  body,  at  this  stage,  is  now  called  upon  to  produce 
the  fifth  birth,  which  assumes  the  condition  of  a  spirit 
body,  said  spirit  body  having  to  depend  entirely  upon 
such  materials  as  you,  the  physical  body,  may  have 
gathered  in  your  journey  through  life  and  trans- 
ferred to  it,  the  spirit,  of  imponderable  matter. 

And  at  this  stage  of  growth  you  can  comprehend 
why,  and  how  it  is,  that  two  apparent  sets  of  thoughts 
can  seem  to  occupy  your  brain  at  the  same  moment  of 
time.  We  say  seeniy  for  you  will  now  readily  recog- 
nize that  there  are  tivo  of  you,  thinking  at  the  same 


(127) 

time;  one,  the  ponderable  or  physical  body,  which 
works  through  a  purely  mechanical  process  of  gray 
matter,  and  the  spirit  body  of  imponderable  or  ad- 
vanced matter. 

BIETH  OF  THE  SOUL. 

This  brings  us  almost  over  the  bridge,  but  not  quite, 
as  the  spirit  body  has  at  this  point  emerged  from  the 
earthy  or  ponderable  matter  (dropped  the  earthy,  so 
to  speak)  but  still  is  composed  of  matter  in  an  im- 
ponderable condition.  And  from  this  spirit  condition 
is  produced  a  sixth  birth,  which  we  call  the  soul  of 
matter,  beyond  which  point  of  change  we  cannot 
advise  you  in  a  definite  manner.  But  we  presume — 
and  it  is  only  a  presumption — that  the  soul  itself  is 
still  subject  to  a  higher  change,  on  and  on  and  on. 
into  the  very  essence  of  life,  the  great  Over- Soul,  the 
Infinite. 

THE  CAUSE  OF  ALL  CAUSATION. 

But  you  can  now  see,  as  we  stated  in  the  earlier 
part  of  this  work,  that  your  surroundings  develop  a 
good  or  bad  body,  which  develops  the  spirit,  which 
again  is  responsible  for  a  perfect  soul. 
I  And  now,  my  brother,  as  we  have  endeavored  to 
pilot  you  over  this  mystic  bridge — and  we  hope  we 
have  succeeded — pause  and  look  around ;  drink  of  this 
cup  of  knowledge  and  common  sense,  and  realize  how 
very  simple,  how  exact,  how  perfect  and  without 
waste,  does  Nature  perform  her  grand  march  of  evolu- 
tion— turning  neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left,  but 


(  128  ) 

an  exact,  merciful,  just  and  loving  Father  to  us  all, 
without  regard  to  race,  creed  or  condition. 

And  thus  it  ever  was,  is  now,  and  ever  will  be :  Life, 
matter,  and  space  without  end,  the  Cause  of  all  causa- 
tion. 

As  a  further  illustration,  we  would  ask :  Why  do 
a  large  majority  of  people  close  their  eyes,  when  sud- 
denly called  on  to  solve  some  problem,  if  it  is  not  for 
the  purpose  of  concentrating  their  thoughts?  And  if 
it  does  concentrate  them  it  is  in  order  to  inquire  how 
it  practically  does  so. 

First  we  assert  that  thought  is  an  entity  ^nd  occu- 
pies space  as  such,  but  does  so  as  something  other 
than  substance. 

We  may  hypothecate  that  thought  and  force  are 
things  that  occupy  the  space  that  would  be  between 
the  ultimates  (spherical  atoms)  of  substance,  or  that 
part  of  infinite  space  assumed  by  Democritus  as  a 
void  or  his  second  principle  of  matter.  To  concen- 
trate a  thing  is  to  make  it  occupy  a  smaller  place, 
similar  to  compressing  a  bale  of  cotton,  etc. 

Thought  manifests  its  presence  in  some  cases  by 
vibrating  from  other  objects. 

We  are  accustomed  to  say  we  see  an  object, — ^an 
apple,  for  instance, — but  this  is  not  the  absolute  fact, 
for  it  is  just  the  contrary — the  apple  sees  us;  and  Ave 
substantiate  our  assertion  in  this  manner. 

The  rays  of  light  must  first  come  in  contact  with 
the  object^  and  are  the^i  reflected  from  the  object  into 
the  eye.  It  does  so  by  vibration.  This  is  motion. 
Hence  we  know  that  where  you  have  motion  you  have 
the  force  to  impart  it  and  the  thought  to  direct  it. 


(  129  ) 

This  thought  at  its  passage  from  the  apple  on  to  the 
brain,  by  way  of  the  optic  nerve,  produces  what  is 
termed  a  concept ^  or  an  embryonic  think.* 

The  reason  for  closing  the  eye  while  concentrating 
your  thoughts  is  to  assist  the  /  am,  dr  spirit  self,  in  the 
act  of  reflecting  back  on  to  your  brain  fully  crystal- 
lized thoughts  from  out  of  your  spirit  atmosphere  to 
07^pam!te  reason;  thik' atmosphere  is  recognized  by 
some  as  mind,  by  others  as  will,  and  by  this  back 
action  it  directs  and  controls  your  physical  organs  of 
speech,  and  a  word  or  language  is  horn. 

With  the  eyes  open,  standing  in  an  orchard,  a 
variety  of  objects  are  reflecting  rays  on  the  eye  at  the 
same  moment,  and  as  each  object  or  ray  must  be 
accompanied  with  its  director  (thought),  the  same 
medley  is  produced  as  though  a  dozen  voices  were  all 
trying  to  speak  at  the  same  time,  and  affect  the  audi- 
tory nerve  in  precisely  the  same  manner. 

This  is  designated  by  some  as  conscious  and  sub- 
conscious, by  others  as  the  sublimary  self;  that  is,  they 
recognize  the  act  of  double  thinking ^  and  feel  called 
upon  to  account  for  it  in  some  manner,  and  if  not  in 
a  common  sense  or  comprehensive  manner,  then  other- 
wise,— such  as  sublimary  self,  for  instance. 

As  we  have  denied  the  existence  of  a  void  or 
vacuum,  and  assume  a  priori  that  the  form  of  the 
atom  is  spherical,  then  these  two  seeming  incongrui- 
ties we  are  obliged  to  harmonize  or  break  the  chain  of 
our  philosophy;  so  we  will  explain  it  in  this  way. 

After  placing  these  four  marbles  (atoms)  in  the 
form  of  a  molecule,  or  body,  this  would  leave  a  void 

*See  Consciousness. 


(  130  ) 

in  the  center,  and  if  not  occupied  by  something  other 
than  substance,  it  would  indeed  represent  a  vacuum ; 
but  we  contend  that  this  space  is  filled  with  that 
essence,  the  existence  of  which  we  recognize  a  priori 
by  its  seeming  effect  on  matter,  two  existing  things, 
(if  anything  does  exist)  of  which  the  human  senses 
are  the  most  cognizant  of  from  experience  and  yet 
know  the  least  of  namely,  THOUGHT  and  FORCE. 


(131) 


CHAPTEE  XX. 

PLANETARY   AND   ELEMENTARY   SPIRITS,   SO-CALLED. 

Before  advancing  with  our  remarks  on  the  above 
subject,  we  will  allow  that  it  is  not  exactly  our  object 
to  take  the  negative  of  truth,  i.  e.  it  is  not  incumbent 
upon  us  to  endeavor  to  offer  you  the  evidence  of  the 
non-existence  of  every  fad  or  fallacy  that  may  become 
seated  in  the  various  minds  of  the  people  of  earth. 
We  think  that  such  an  undertaking  would  be  a  trilie 
too  much,  to  say  nothing  of  the  useless  waste  of  paper. 

However,  we  will  crave  your  indulgence  for  this 
one  subject,  as  it  has  a  tendency  to  beguile  and  mis- 
lead the  student  after  those  false  Gods  of  which  we 
have  warned  you  before.  And,  as  we  find  that  many 
spiritualists  of  to-day  are  inclined  to  cast  a  smiling 
eye  on  this  old  Hindu  myth,  we  do  not  think  what  few 
remarks  we  may  have  to  offer  for  your  consideration 
will  seriously  incommode  your  studies ;  therefore  we 
will  begin  by  taking  the  bull  by  the  horns  at  once  and 
say  that,  either  we  are  entirely  mistaken  in  all  that  we 
have  advanced  as  regards  the  truth  of  evolution,  i.  e. 
that  it  begins  with  the  very  first  original  atom  of 
matter  in  an  undeveloped  state  as  it  then  and  now 
fills  all  space,  awaiting  a  time  and  opportunity  to  ad- 
vance to  a  higher  and  better  condition,  or  we  have 
asserted  the  simple  truth  as  human  nature  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  can  understand  it. 


(132) 

So  far  we  have  endeavored  to  give  you  one  unbroken 
chain  of  known  evidence,  as  viewed  and  acknowledged 
by  your  scientific  laws.  Therefore,  the  question  now 
forces  itself  upon  us :  shall  we  break  the  chain  at  this 
point ;  or  rather,  should  we  not  seek  to  strengthen  it? 

And  now,  my  friend,  in  speaking  of  elementary 
spirits,  it  is  but  just  to  those  who  advocate  the  exist- 
ence of  such  spirits  for  us  to  concede  that  words  do 
not  always  convey  the  truth ;  and  it  might  be  said  by 
such  advocates  that,  while  it  is  probable  that  the  word 
"  elemental,''  as  used  in  the  above  sense,  is  incorrect 
when  applied  to  spirit,  that  they  still  insist  on  the 
actual  existence  of  a  spirit  that  had  never  yet  been 
possessed  at  any  previous  time  of  a  form  or  passed 
through  the  earth  conditions. 

THE  BIRTH  OF  INTELLIGENCE  AND  WISDOM. 

Physical  matter,  in  its  first  known  state,  is  that 
body  of  substance  that  fills  all  known  space  in  the 
form  of  the  atom.  The  first  change  or  move  of  ad- 
vancement of  this  atom  is  to  seek  to  join  another 
atom,  which  is  the  very  first  beginning  of — let  us  say 
^our  world.  And  right  at  this  point  you  have  the 
first  undeniable  evidence  of  life  and  intelligence.  You 
have  the  evidence  of  life  in  the  force  and  motion  it 
displays ;  you  have  the  evidence  of  intelligence  by  the 
proofs  of  its  seeking  another  atom  and  permanently 
joining  the  same  for  a  particular  preconceived  pur- 
pose. If  this  does  not  constitute  intelligence,  pray 
what  does?  That  is,  if  intelligence  does  not  begin  at 
this  very  point,  then  it  could  not  have  a  beginning. 
And  at  this  point,  you  will  see,  is  the  very  ulti- 


(  133  ) 

mate  beginning  of  human  comprehension  of  ele- 
mentary organization  and  the  suhdivision  of 
intelligence,  which  follows  the  life  of  the  atom 
through  all  of  its  various  stages  of  advancement, 
from  the  nebulous  or  gaseous  stage  to  the  liquid, 
thence  the  solid  or  rock,  thence  the  vegetable, 
again  the  animal.  And  at  this  point,  as  we  have 
shown  you  elscAvhere,  by  a  description  of  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  apple,  the  atom  of  intelligence  finds  an 
opportunity  to  advance  in  the  form  of  a  Thinks  when, 
by  a  union  of  this  think  matter,  derived  from  sight, 
hearing,  smell,  and  the  other  nerves  of  sense,  it  ad- 
vances to  the  condition  of  an  embryo  thought  and  Is 
impinged  on  the  entire  brain,  whose  duty  it  is  to  refine 
and  classify  it  into  human  intelligence.  This  intelli- 
gence is  not  made  manifest  to  a  child  of  one  day  old 
to  any  appreciable  extent,  but  gathers  around  the 
child,  atom  by  atom,  following  the  gradual  develop- 
ment of  the  budding  mind  or  reason.  The  infinite 
object  of  human  life  on  the  earth  planet  is  to  develop 
this  same  reason  into  intelligence,  w^hich  is  gathered 
around  you  as  you  make  your  journey  through  earth 
life;  and  by  a  constant  opportunity  being  given  you 
to  exercise  your  human  or  physical  senses,  you  de- 
velop wisdom  from  the  experience  of  these  physical 
senses. 

ASTRAL  SHELL. 

This  wisdom,  intelligence,  experience,  etc.,  are 
gathered  around  your  physical  body  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  perfume  is  gathered  around  the  apple, 
in  the  form  of  imponderable  matter.     Out  of  this 


(  134  ) 

matter  is  produced  a  spirit, — you  may  call  it  at  this 
stage  your  earth  spirit,  which  has  often  been  mis- 
understood by  the  neophyte  investigator, — as  an 
astral  shell  or  elementary  spirit^  and  it  is  by  this 
atmosphere  of  imponderable  atoms  that  sensitives  are 
enabled  to  read  your  surroundings  wherever  you  are 
or  may  have  been.  Being  in  a  room,  for  instance,  and 
you  have  left  the  room,  you  leave  a  portion  of  that 
atmosphere  behind  you  in  precisely  the  same  manner 
as  the  apple  leaves  its  fragrance  in  the  room  after  it 
has  been  removed,  that  which  is  left  is  that  portion  of 
matter  that  has  not  advanced  sufficiently  to  be  able  to 
take  the  next  step  in  evolution,  hence  the  necessity 
of  its  being  returned  to  the  earth,  or  the  mills  of  the 
gods,  to  be  again  ground  over. 

You  will  now  be  enabled  to  more  clearly  understand 
from  this  description  of  the  order  of  advancement 
(evolution)  how  impossible  and  illogical  it  would  be 
for  a  spirit  to  be  produced  from  an  element  of  un- 
developed matter  before  that  atom  had  first  passed 
through  the  various  primary  degrees  of  earthly  organ- 
ization or  form. 

One  of  the  first  objects  of  infinite  life  is  order  or 
classification.  This  is  accomplished  by  first  bringing 
two  or  more  elementary  atoms  of  primary  matter 
together,  which  develops  the  form  or  shape  of  an 
object.  Could  the  apple  be  produced  before  the  tree, 
or  the  tree  before  the  sprout?  Is  it  rational  to  sup- 
pose that  the  soul  was  produced  before  the  spirit,  or 
that  the  spirit  body  was  before  the  physical  or  earth 
body?  For  those  who  claim  to  know  of  such  ele- 
mentary spirits  as  half  horse  and  half  man,  we  would 


(  135  ) 

like  to  ask,  Where  did  these  abnormal  spirits  get  their 
knowledge  and  experience  of  form  and  shape  from  in 
order  to  build  on?  Now,  my  friend,  we  hardly  think 
it  necessary  for  us  to  proceed  any  further  on  this  sub- 
ject, as  we  are  inclined  to  think  it  condemns  itself,  but 
will  proceed  to  inquire  into  the  truth  of  the  planetary 
spirits  being  able  to  manifest  to  the  denizens  of  the 
earth. 

In  order  to  illustrate  this  matter  to  you,  we  will  say 
that  the  earth  is  eight  thousand  miles  in  diameter,  and 
around  the  earth  is,  we  will  call  it,  a  supermundane 
sphere,  extending  outward  for  a  distance  of,  say,  one 
million  of  miles.  This  we  will  call  the  spirit  world  of 
this  earth,  and  it  is  composed  of  the  eliminations  of 
imponderable  matter  that  has  passed  through  the 
necessary  earth  conditions,  but  is  still  a  part  of  your 
globe  or  world,  only  in  a  higher  condition.  Please 
remember  that  the  fact  that  you  cannot  see  it  is  no 
proof  of  its  non-existence ;  for  you  cannot  see  atmos- 
pheric air,  thought,  etc.,  yet  they  have  an  actual 
existence.  Again,  you  will  remember  that  all  objec- 
tive earth  matter  is  only  seeming  and  only  entered 
that  state  in  order  to  enable  it  to  make  further  ad- 
vancement and  will  eventually  return  to  a  state  in- 
visible to  the  human  eye.  Now,  all  matter,  of 
whatsoever  nature,  is  only  held  in  the  spirit  world 
after  it  has  secured  all  the  advancement  that  the 
physical  earth  or  world  can  give  it,  and,  as  we  have 
stated  in  another  part  of  this  work,  the  denser  matter 
is  held  next  the  surface  of  the  earth.  Now,  the  same 
law  of  progression  governs  the  spirit  world  that 
governs  the  ponderable  matter  of  earth. 


(  136  ) 

To  illustrate  for  this  purpose,  we  will  say  that  you 
cannot  retrograde, — that  is,  the  father  cannot  become 
a  little  child  again,  nor  can  he  impart  all  of  his  knowl- 
edge to  a  child  of  five  years  of  age;  he  may  explain 
to  the  child  the  mysteries  of  the  steam-engine,  but  how 
much  does  the  child  comprehend  of  the  matter?  Just 
so  the  spirits  try  to  teach  you,  and  so  again  the  pro- 
gressed or  higher  spirits  teach  of  their  discoveries  of 
the  outer  circles  of  spirit  life. 

Once  more  your  attention,  please.  We  will  suppose 
again  that  Jupiter,  Mars,  and  the  other  planets  of  our 
sun  are  of  just  the  same  dimensions,  with  each  a  spirit 
sphere  of  like  dimensions.  We  will  place  these 
spheres  in  space  just  two  millions  seven  thousand 
miles  apart,  that  is,  from  center  to  center, — by  so 
placing  them  you  will  see  that  the  outer  circle  of  the 
two  planets  interblend  to  the  depth  of  one  thousand 
miles.  Spirits  that  have  advanced  to  this  great  and 
glorious  condition  are  so  refined  as  to  dazzle  the 
understanding  of  those  spirits  who  are  next  to  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  and  we  do  not  wonder  that  they 
take  them  for  demigods,  in  the  same  manner  that 
mediaeval  man  mistook  the  earth  spirits  for  gods, — 
particularly  poor  old  Moses,  who  never  was  very 
bright  when  at  his  best. 

As  each  planet  has  an  over-life  of  its  own,  and  is 
bent  on  working  out  the  problem  of  that  life  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  child  has  its  individual  life  to 
pursue,  though  its  aches  and  pains  are  sensed  to  a 
limited  degree  by  the  other  members  of  the  family,  so 
it  is  with  the  family  of  planets  that  form  individual 
members  of  our  sun  family ;  and  as  the  goal  of  ambi- 


(137) 

tion  of  the  spirits  of  our  planet  earth  is  to  advance 
into  the  home  of  the  soul  or  the  outer  circle  of  our 
mother  sun,  then  it  stands  to  reason  that  for  them  to 
seek  an  advancement  in  the  direction  of  a  brother 
planet  would  lead  them  hackivards  towards  another 
planet.  Therefore  the  only  attraction  that  prevails 
among  planetary  spirits  is  after  they  have  left  their 
spirit  spheres  and  become  members  of  the  outer  sun's 
sphere  or  home  of  the  soul.  Whatever  influence  was 
felt  by  one  planetary  spirit  from  another  would  only 
be  at  that  extreme  point  in  the  outer  environments  of 
the  two  supermundane  spheres,  and  then  only  as  one 
member  of  a  family  feels  or  senses  the  wish  of  another 
under  very  lofty  conditions.  You  will  see,  therefore, 
that  for  our  advanced  spirits  to  return  or  be  attracted 
to  Mars,  or  the  spirits  of  Mars  to  be  attracted  to  the 
earth,  would  be  a  retrograde  movement.  That  the 
spirits  of  our  earth  who  have  advanced  to  the  outer 
periphery  of  our  supermundane  sphere  can  and  do 
convey,  by  impression,  a  part  of  their  knowledge  to 
those  spirits  who  are  a  degree  below  them  is  true  in 
the  same  manner  as  the  father  conveys  impressions 
to  his  children;  he  explains  to  the  oldest,  who,  in 
turn,  explains,  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  to  the  younger 
members.  So  you  will  see  about  how  near  under  these 
conditions  you,  the  people  of  earth,  can  come  to  an 
exact  comprehension  of  what  is  taking  place  physi- 
cally on  the  planet  Mars. 

It  is  thus  we  explode  the  bubble  of  planetary  spirit 
communication.  Why,  not  one  medium  in  a  hundred 
can  really  understand  and  interpret  the  communica- 
tions that  you  are  now  receiving  from  the  lower  spirit 


(  138  ) 

world,  and  until  you  learn  to  live  and  surround  your- 
selves and  families  with  a  higher  sense  of  spiritual 
life,  you  never  will. 


(  139  ) 


REINCARNATION. 

The  only  authority  you  have  for  a  belief  in 
reincarnation  is  from  the  fact  that  many  people  now 
living  on  the  earth  plane  who  are  known  among  you 
as  very  intellectual  persons,  and  even  yourself,  intel- 
lectual or  otherwise,  have  positively  asserted  that 
they  can  remember  vaguely  circumstances  that 
seemed  to  have  occurred  to  them  when  they  were  in 
some  previous  life.  This  is  all  of  the  evidence,  if  it 
may  be  accepted  as  evidence,  those  so  asserting  can 
advance,  and  is  one  of  the  principal  arguments  ad- 
vanced by  the  Theosophists  in  support  of  re-embodi- 
ment. 

The  cause  of  this  feeling  which  at  times  comes  over 
those  who  so  testify  is,  that  they,  at  the  time  of  such 
occurrence,  are  being  influenced  or  acted  upon  by 
some  ancient  or  modern  spirit  who  does  not  possess 
the  knowledge  or  power  to  successfully  control  their 
mentality  so  as  to  make  himself  recognized  by  them, 
but  can  only  partially  hypnotize  them;  this  places 
them  in  a  sort  of  dazed  condition  where  they  become 
slightly  obsessed — not  sufficiently  to  do  them  any 
harm  at  first,  but  it  is  like  taking  the  first  drink  or 
opium  pill — the  beginning  of  the  units,  so  to  speak, 
or  first  cause. 

You  may  frequently  see  a  professional  medium 
characterize  a  spirit,  and  in  this  condition  they  lose 


(140) 

their  own  individuality  and  become  at  the  time  the 
ancient  spirit,  and,  as  such,  remember  of  course  only 
their  past  life,  but  the  spirit,  while  obsessing  the 
medium  or  sensitive,  may  only  be  able  to  faintly  re- 
call the  past,  owing  to  the  conditions  of  harmony  be- 
tween you  at  that  moment. 

A  great  many  people  can  recall  instances  of  their 
lives  where  they  have  done  or  said  things  in  a  moment 
when,  in  the  next  moment,  they  could  not  for  their 
lives  tell  why  they  did  or  said  it,  and  have  felt  ex- 
tremely mortified  therefrom.  This  is  from  the  same 
cause. 

As  a  partial  illustration,  we  will  ask  you  what  it 
is  or  whence  comes  the  great  physical  force  suddenly 
developed  by  the  heart,  while  sitting  in  a  passive  con- 
dition, after  having  been  informed  by  a  friend  of  the 
death  of,  or  severe  accident  to,  a  dear  relative;  or, 
again,  you  may  be  lying  down  in  that  comatose  state 
between  sleep  and  awake  when  suddenly  your  heart 
gives  a  great  jump  and  you  feel  as  though  you  had 
just  escaped  some  great  accident  by  a  hair's  breadth. 
This  was  not  caused  by  the  action  of  your  physical 
senses;  you  were  not  even  drawing  on  your  imagina- 
tion, yet  here  was  a  physical  result  of  a  violent  work- 
ing of  the  heart.  This  will  serve  to  show  you  that 
you  are  surrounded  at  all  times  by  an  ether,  atmos- 
phere, or  call  it  what  you  please,  that  comes  in  con- 
tact with  a  similar  atmosphere  of  your  own  in  which 
the  real  I  AM  of  you  exists,  and  can  and  is  acted  upon 
by  an  imponderable  substance  almost  entirely  inde- 
pendent of  your  physical  body.  Many  persons  ob- 
serve this  phenomenon  just  at  that  period  when  pass- 


(  141  ) 

ing  from  wakefulness  to  sleep ;  at  this  stage  the  phys- 
ical body,  and  especially  the  brain-cells,  are  in  a 
negative  condition,  but  sensitive  to  spirit  forces. 

Now,  a  spirit,  we  will  say,  that  was  removed  from 
the  body  by  some  sudden  and  violent  cause, — say 
blown  up  or  knocked  overboard  and  drowned, — comes 
into  your  atmosphere  and,  by  so  doing,  the  spirit 
instantly  takes  on  the  condition  that  caused  its  re- 
moval from  the  body.  This  shock  is  precipitated  on 
to  the  negative  or  sleeper's  atmosphere,  which,  in 
turn,  suddenly  casts  it  on  to  that  group  of  the  physical 
brain  governing  the  organism  of  the  heart  in  so  vio- 
lent a  manner  that  the  brain-cells  can  not  systemati- 
cally receive  and  classify  it, — in  almost  the  same 
manner,  in  fact,  as  a  birthmark  is  produced.  (See 
Chapter  XXIV. )  Your  physical  brain  was  not  think- 
ing at  the  time;  therefore  this  sudden,  startling  sensa- 
tion cannot  be  attributed  to  the  imagination.  All 
that  you  seem  to  realize  at  the  moment  is  that  some- 
thing awful  is  about  to  happen.  If  not  from  a  wander- 
ing spirit,  where  does  this  feeling  of  dread  come 
from?  Alas,  how  many  unfortunate  mortals  have 
been  and  are  now  incarcerated  in  lunatic  asylums 
charged  with  lunacy  that  owe  their  presence  in  such 
institutions  solely  to  obsession  thvongh  this  cause! 
This  phenomenon  is  a  known  fact,  and  almost  every 
one  has  at  some  period  of  his  life  experienced  such  a 
shock.  Here,  you  will  perceive,  is  a  direct  communi- 
cation to  the  muscles  from  the  brain  that  controls 
them.  This  fact  will  serve  to  show  that  thought 
exists  independent  of  words  or  language;  Max 
Muller's  "  Science  of  Thought "  to  the  contrary,  about 
which  we  shall  have  more  to  say  later. 


(142) 

Many  spirits  on  first  entering  into  the  spirit  con- 
dition, either  from  violence  or  otherwise,  do  not 
realize  that  they  have  made  the  passage  which  you 
call  death,  and  drift  around  in  a  somewhat  dazed 
condition,  being  strongly  attracted  to  the  physical  or 
earth  matter,  when  they  find  themselves  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  some  mortal  who  happens  to  be  sensitive  to 
that  particular  spirit.  There  is  an  influence  generated 
by  such  contact  that  awakens  or  enervates  both  the 
spirit  and  sensitive,  and  this  influence  is  felt  from  the 
faintest  degree  to  the  wildest  state  of  obsession,  de- 
pending entirely  on  the  amount  of  harmony  at  the 
moment  existing  between  the  two;  hence,  while  to 
some  the  impression  of  a  past  existence  is  very  vague 
and  shadowy,  to  others  it  is  more  pronounced. 

As  you  are  aware,  there  are  many  well-authenti- 
cated instances  where  persons  have  suddenly  lost 
their  own  identity  or  individuality  and  taken  on  all 
the  memory  and  personality  of  another,  the  one 
X)ersonated  invariahly  hcing  one  of  your  so-called 
dead,  and  this  condition  has  continued  in  some  for 
only  a  few  moments,  while  in  others  it  has  continued 
for  years. 

And  now,  my  friend,  just  exercise  your  own 
common  sense  in  passing  judgment  on  this,  our  expla- 
nation of  the  fallacy  of  reincarnation,  and  see  if  those 
who  advocate  such  an  antagonizing  theory  to  the  in- 
evitable law  of  evolution  can  or  do  offer  you  any 
evidence  that  is  sustained  by  any  as  well-known  or 
as  fully  recognized  phenomena  as  we  have  had  the 
pleasure  of  submitting  for  your  consideration. 


(143) 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

ANIMALS    IN    THE    SPIRIT    WORLD;     OR^    DOES    ALL 
OBJECTIVE   MATTER   PROJECT   A   SPIRIT? 

(June  23,  1897.) 

My  friend,  I  observe  upon  your  mind  this  morning 
an  inquiry  or  birth  of  another  question  which  was  pro- 
duced by  our  erection  of  the  bridge  called  Thought, 
namely:  If  thought  is  matter,  then  it  naturally  fol- 
lows that,  as  thought  produces  mind  or  intelligence, 
that  also  must  be  composed  of  matter.  This  produces 
the  spirit  which  again  must  be  composed  of  matter. 
And  here  follows  in  your  mind  the  question :  As  the 
apple  throws  off  a  progressed  atom  which  is  attracted 
to  human  mind,  what  becomes  of  that  part  of  the  apple 
that  contributes  the  over-life,  spirit,  or  soul,  of  the  ap- 
ple? In  other  words,  we  see  that  you  are  reaching  out 
and  endeavoring  to  solve  the  question,  either  in  the 
affirmative  or  negative,  as  regards  the  existence  or 
non-existence  of  the  spirit  of  the  vegetable  and  lower 
animals  in  the  spirit  world,  and  if  in  the  affirmative, 
being  matter,  it  must  have  form. 

We  will  begin  by  answering  your  compound  ques- 
tion in  the  affirmative,  and  will  endeavor  to  advance 
for  your  consideration  such  self-evident  facts  as  we 
think  will  be  as  convincing  to  you  as  your  comprehen- 
sion of  the  subject  at  this  stage  of  your  earth  develop- 


(  144  ) 

ment  will  admit.  As  all  atomic  matter  had  an  avowed 
or  special  purpose  in  coming  together  in  the  begin- 
ning or  first  conception  of  the  earth  planet,  it  is  per- 
missible for  us  to  inquire  what  that  purpose  was,  in 
order  to  avoid  as  much  as  possible  a  repetition  of  all 
that  we  formerly  advanced  on  the  question  of  the  over- 
life  or  one  life  of  objective  matter. 

We  will  assume  that  our  efforts  to  establish  only  the 
truth  have  thus  far  been  crowned  with  success,  and 
will  advance  our  remarks  on  that  hypothesis;  and 
as  we  have  met  with  so  much  success  in  segregating 
the  question,  and  thereby  avoiding  the  confusion  and 
clouds  that  must  necessarily  intervene  on  all  ques- 
tions of  the  truth  regarding  the  occult^  you  will  see  the 
advantage  of  continuing  in  the  same  manner. 

We  will  therefore  begin  with  the  apple,  and  again 
follow  its  course  of  progress,  and  as  with  the  apple, 
so  it  is  also  with  the  so-called  lower  animals  and  all 
natural  forms  of  objective  matter  (by  this  we  mean 
rocks,  vegetables,  and  any  thing  having  a  form  that 
was  produced  by  the  natural  process — produced  by 
and  through  the  law  of  the  earth  when  acting  out 
the  natural  law  of  evolution).  Here  we  wish  you  to 
clearly  understand  that  we  do  not  include — nor  do 
we  deny — such  objects  as  were  wrought  by  the  artifice 
of  man's  ingenuity,  etc. 

The  purport  of  all  matter  is  to  seek  to  advance  or 
to  better  its  condition.  Now,  what  produced  this  con- 
dition in  the  first  place, — that  is,  the  desire, — if  it  was 
not  the  presence  of  the  lowest,  the  very  lowest,  ex- 
pression of  life?  Matter,  you  will  understand  in  this 
instance,  is  only  a  means  for  an  end,  and  assumes  the 


(  145  ) 

form  of  a  vehicle  toi  convey  something.  That  some- 
thing is  life.  Now,  it  does  not  follow  that  all  life  is 
human  life;  in  fact,  human  life  forms  but  a  small 
percentage  of  the  great  over-life  which  some  recognize 
as  the  over-soul,  God,  the  Infinite  One,  etc. 

And  when  you  consider,  as  we  have  before  stated, 
that  the  great  outermost  surrounding  sphere,  the 
limit  of  human  comprehension, — that  sphere  that 
embraces  all  that  exists, — is  composed  of  the  accu- 
mulations of  all  kinds  and  qualities  and  the  very 
essence  of  life,  and,  by  the  very  fact  of  its  unity  into 
one  final  sphere,  it  must  have  an  over-life  of  one  and 
the  only  final  object  of  all  that  is ;  and  as  it  embraces 
and  flows  through  all,  and  could  not  be  without  all, 
then  you  will  see  that  the  smallest  atom  is  just  as 
much  an  integral  part,  in  proportion  to  the  whole 
(God),  as  the  largest  known  planet.  And  as  we 
watch  and  study  the  evolution  of  one  atom  and  its 
change  to  something  higher,  and  again  its  change  to 
still  higher,  higher,  and  higher  conditions,  and,  as  all 
matter  takes  precisely  the  same  course,  only  differing 
in  degree  and  time,  and,  as  we  knoiv  of  no  other  pro- 
cess, either  in  the  spirit  or  the  physical,  by  which  mat- 
ter progresses,  then  we  can  but  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  all  life — and  hence  all  matter — is  governed  by 
the  one  grand  desire  to  seek  the  highest  possible 
attainment — which  is  perfection. 

Now,  my  friend,  we  are  aware  that  at  the  first 
glance  you  take  of  this  assertion  it  will  somewhat 
stagger  you ;  but  when  you  come  to  consider  that  the 
human  spirit  is  produced  in  precisely  the  same  way, 
please  allow  us  to  ask.  Is  the  one  more  wonderful  or 


(  146  ) 

impractical  or  unreasonable  than  the  other?  For,  as 
with  the  human  matter  it  is  with  the  vegetable,  also 
with  the  mineral.  You  cannot  deny  that  the  apple 
and  the  horse  have  reached  an  advanced  position  from 
the  volcanic  period  of  the  earth-atoms ;  and  it  is  con- 
trary to  all  known  laws  of  evolution  for  this  advanced 
matter,  in  the  form  of  an  apple  or  a  horse,  to  go  back- 
Avards.  Then,  pray  tell  us,  with  better  logic  than  we 
have  advanced,  what  becomes  of  this  matter — for  you 
cannot  destroy  it. 

WILL  THE  WORLD  EVENTUALLY  TURN  TO  A  GREASE-SPOT? 

It  is  true  that  this  would  lead  to  a  probable  surmise 
— and  only  a  surmise — that  all  the  matter  composing 
this  world  would  eventually  pass  into  some  other  kind 
of  a  world,  leaving  nothing  of  this  world  but  a  grease- 
spot,  so  to  speak.  To  this  we  will  answer  first :  How 
do  you  know  that  it  will  not?  Secondly,  how  do  we 
know  that  the  final  termination  of  all  matter  is  not 
to  be  absorbed  by  the  great  over-soul  or  universalism? 
Or  that,  when  perfection  is  reached,  it  ends  there? 
Of  a  truth,  this  question  is  so  far  in  the  infinite  of 
eternity  that  it  is  absolutely  beyond  all  human  or 
spirit  comprehension,  and  is  almost  analogous  to 
chasing  a  will-o'-the-wisp,  and  we  will  insist  that  we 
have  not  only  a  right,  but  that  it  is  perfectly  proper  to 
advance  the  truth  in  any  manner  or  by  any  road  that 
is  built  on  known  facts, — from  cause  to  effect, — and 
that  this  line  should  never  be  departed  from  in  favor 
of  mere  belief  or  baseless  conjecture.  Yet  we  are  also 
free  to  admit  that  belief  is  oftentimes  necessary  to 


(  147  ) 

pave  the  way  to  knowledge,  but  claim  that  it  at  no 
time  should  be  allowed  to  take  precedence  as  evidence 
of  facts  over  well-known  truths. 

Now,  take  the  question  in  a  graduated  life.  If  man 
possesses  a  spirit,  where  does  the  object  called  a  man, 
in  the  sense  of  evolution,  begin?  And  at  what  point 
does  the  man  cease  to  be  and  the  higher  class  of  the 
lower  animal  begin?  For  instance,  take  the  lower  class 
of  the  African  negro,  the  chimpanzee,  the  elephant, 
etc.,  or,  in  other  words,  take  Darwin^s  origin  of  species 
and  honestly  put  your  finger  on  the  point  where  the 
one  leaves  off  and  the  other  begins.  If  Darwin  was 
unable  to  draw  a  positive  line  where  not  only  the 
human  species  began  or  the  rock  or  mineral  ceased  to 
be  such,  after  spending  his  whole  life  in  his  researches, 
have  we  not  in  this  one  of  the  best  evidences  known  to 
science  to  sustain  our  assertion  that  all  matter  pro- 
gresses to  higher  conditions? 

WILL  WE  BE  ANNOYED  BY   FLEAS  AND  THINGS  IN  THE 
SPIRIT  WORLD? 

It  is  true  that  we  hear  flippant  remarks  from  time 
to  time,  from  some  of  the  would-be  considered  pro- 
found thinkers,  that  there  would  be  danger  of  their 
being  annoyed  in  the  spirit  world  by  fleas  and  things. 
Alas,  we  do  fear  they  will  be  annoyed,  especially  by 
things  that  they  would  like  to  get  rid  of. 

We  might  add  our  own  testimony  to  the  truth  of 
animal  spirits,  but  as  we  started  out  to  write  this  book 
on  purely  known  facts,  such  as  would  be  sustained 
by  science  and  common  sense  alone,  it  would  be  break- 


(  1^8  ) 

ing  away  from  our  clear  line  of  instructing  you  on 
only  knotvn  facts  that  bear  out  all  that  we  have  ad- 
vanced, and,  therefore,  were  we  to  so  assert,  it  would 
only  be  hearsay  or  belief;  and  if  you  should  hunger 
for  that  sort  of  knowledge,  just  drop  in  on  some  of  the 
churches  some  Sunday  morning. 


(149  ) 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

CLAIRVOYANCE   AND    CLAIRAUDIENCB. 

(June  26,  1897.) 

Again  we  sense  upon  your  mind  the  question,  How 
do  the  spirits  convey  to  mortals  those  truths  which 
they  wish  to  impart?  And  we  also  see  upon  your 
mind  that,  if  our  answer  is  not  satisfactory,  you  will 
not  use  it.  Very  well,  my  friend,  we  do  not  wish  to 
force  our  opinion  upon  you,  nor  have  we  done  so  as 
yet,  having  as  little  use  for  opinions  as  yourself,  but 
shall  continue  the  same  course  as  heretofore.  How- 
ever, my  dear  friend,  we  beg  of  you  not  to  put  yourself 
in  a  positive  mood,  or  you  will  defeat  your  own  object 
as  well  as  ours.  We  thought  we  had  "already  schooled 
you  sufficiently  well  in  that  direction,  and  as  it  was 
our  intention  from  the  beginning  to  clothe  all  of  our 
remarks  in  plain  United  States,  and  avoid  as  much  as 
possible  those  antediluvian,  jaw-twisting  terms  used 
by  your  metaphysicians,  in  order  that  this  work  might 
be  read  by  the  middle  class  of  people  comprehensively, 
we  hope  that  you  will  be  kind  enough  to  still  realize 
how  difficult  it  is  for  us  to  clearly  expound  even  this 
last  question  of  yours,  coming,  as  it  does,  sO  directly 
to  the  door  of  the  occult. 

We  will  take  for  our  subject  Clairvoyance,  as  this 
will  give  you  a  general  idea  of  the  whole  matter. 


(150) 

First,  you  will  remember  that,  as  there  are  all  manner 
of  minds  and  organisms  in  a  state  of  development  on 
the  earth  planet,  from  extreme  ignorance  to  the  well- 
rounded-out  philosopher,  so  also  is  it  in  the  spirit 
world ;  and  when  the  average  mortal  wishes  to  have 
some  profound  question  solved,  he  naturally  seeks  out 
some  one  highly  learned  in  that  especial  line  of 
thought. 

Again,  you  are  aware  that  different  minds  are  de- 
veloped or  are  trained  in  different  directions;  for 
instance,  one  man  will  make  botany  a  study,  another 
mineralogy,  and  another  state-craft  or  the  political 
and  social  attributes.  If  you  should  go  to  one  of  these 
philosophers,  he  would  tell  you  to  begin  with  that. 
In  order  to  clearly  and  fully  explain  the  problem  of 
which  you  seek  knowledge,  you  would  have  to  read 
up  a  little,  in  order  that  he  might  make  himself  under- 
stood ;  but  as  you  probably  had  not  the  time  or  oppor- 
tunity, he  would  do  the  very  best  he  could  under  the 
circumstances  to  make  you  understand.  Just  so  is  it 
in  the  spirit  world. 

Now,  go  back  in  this  little  volume  and  again  read 
our  remarks  on  prophecy;  there  you  will  learn  that 
the  Old  Man  of  the  Sea  had  been  studying  the  effects 
of  coming  events  for  thousands  of  years ;  that  was  his 
hobby,  so  to  speak.  He  had  grown  wise  on  this  par- 
ticular subject, — so  wise  that  ordinary  spirits  do  not 
question  his  wisdom  at  all.    So  much  for  our  prelude. 

The  medium  whose  forces  are  adaptable  for  clear 
seeing  attracts  a  spirit  who  is  above  the  average  of 
spirits  in  spirituality.  This  spirit  selects  by  attrac- 
tion other  spirits  of  less  degree,  generally,  to  assist 


(  151  ) 

him  in  his  work.  In  so  doing  he  accomplishes  a 
double  purpose ;  for  he  teaches  or  gives  to  those  lower 
spirits  a  part  of  his  knowledge  and  assists  them  to 
advance,  while  they,  being  able  to  come  into  closer 
rapport  with  the  medium,  impart  a  portion  of  their 
knowledge  to  the  medium,  and  benefit  him  and  other 
mortals  by  convincing  them  of  these  higher  truths. 

Now,  the  guide  or  spirit  at  the  head  of  the  band  can 
put  himself  in  harmony  or  communication  with  this 
or  that  wise  spirit  by  means  of  thought-waves  and 
gather  such  information  as  the  mortal  seeks;  that  is, 
he  can  get  shadows  of  the  truth,  for  there  is  with 
spirits,  as  with  men,  an  almost  impassable  barrier  to 
a  full  comprehension  of  any  matter  between  the 
various  intelligences.  The  guide  now  impresses  on  the 
minds  of  the  band  that  which  he  receives  from  a 
higher  source;  they,  in  turn,  to  the  best  of  their 
ability,  transfer  these  impressions  to  the  medium's 
spirit  with  which  they  have  become  by  practice  in 
close  rapport,  and,  in  something  the  manner  as  hypno- 
tism, when  the  spirit  of  the  medium  (sometimes 
called  his  second  self)  throAvs  it  on  the  physical  brain 
of  the  man.  This  is  sometimes  accomplished  by  caus- 
ing an  impressional  picture  of  the  information  sought 
to  be  cast  on  the  spirit  ether  that  surrounds  the  spirit 
of  the  medium,  which  the  spirit  of  the  medium  senses 
and  again  reflects  on  the  physical  brain.  By  this 
process,  you  will  see,  the  sought-for  truth  has  had  to 
be  transmitted  backwards  through  four  circles  of  pro- 
gression, losing  necessarily  a  little  at  each  change, 
in  almost  the  same  ratio  as  knowledge  was  gained  in 
the  forward  changes.    This  will  explain  to  you  why 


(  152  ) 

it  is  that  very  often  your  sittings  with  a  sensitive  are 
not  at  all  times  satisfactory,  there  being  so  many 
hands  for  it  to  pass  through,  so  many  disturbing 
influences  to  meet  and  overcome,  that  the  only  wonder 
is  that  you  can  get  anything  at  all. 

The  reasonably  well-progressed  spirits  do  not  have 
to  be  always  present  with  another  spirit  to  communi- 
cate their  desires.  They  do  not  have  to  use  the  audi- 
tory nerve  to  hear  by  atmospheric  vibration.  Not 
being  physical,  you  will  understand  that  they  require 
none  of  the  physical  nerves  to  sense  a  truth,  but,  by 
a  much  finer  imponderable  matter,  they  are  able  to 
project  their  thoughts  to  a  great  distance,  time 
cutting  no  figure  in  the  transaction. 

CLAIRAUDIENCE. 

Clairaudience  is  accomplished  in  almost  the  same 
manner.  The  spirit,  or  second  self,  reflects  on  the 
physical  brain  in  a  sort  of  back-action  the  imponder- 
able matter  of  sound,  which  is  heard  on  the  brain  only 
while  the  mortal,  being  accustomed  to  receiving  by 
way  of  the  auditory  nerve,  thinks  it  is  his  ear  that 
hears.  Since  you,  my  friend,  have  heard  clairaudient- 
ly,  you  will  remember  that  it  seemed  as  though  a  wee, 
tiny  voice  was  away  inside  of  your  ear,  or  as  though 
you  were  hearing  through  a  very  weak  long-distance 
telephone.  Why  it  seemed  to  sound  thus  was  because 
it  was  being  transmitted  in  a  backward  manner — that 
is,  from  the  spirit  to  the  brain,  instead  of  from  the 
brain  to  the  spirit,  somewhat  as  if  you  were  to  look 
through  the  small  end  of  a  spy-glass,  the  objects  being 


(  153  ) 

enlarged  or  drawn  near  to  you,  while,  if  you  reverse 
the  glass,  the  object  is  reduced  or  far  away. 

And  now,  hoping  that  our  communication  will  not 
be  hastily  cast  into  the' waste-basket. 

We  remain. 

Yours  truly. 

The  amanuensis  will  here  acknowledge  that  the 
rebuke  was  well  deserved,  and  I  take  it  all  back ;  but 
must  be  allowed  to  confess  that  such  indeed  were  my 
thoughts — that  the  query  would  prove  a  "  corker.'^ 
However,  an  honest  confession  is  good  for  the  soul, 
and  "  all 's  well  that  ends  well."  C.  H.  F. 

INVESTIGATING  MATERIALIZATION. 

At  this  point  of  our  remarks  it  will  be  appropriate 
to  allow  our  scribe  to  give  you  a  little  of  his  ex- 
perience while  pursuing  his  investigations  of 
materialization,  by  a  concise  report  of  a  number  of 
private  sittings  with  two  or  three  most  excellent  and 
honest  mediums. 

I  will  begin  by  saying  that  in  the  early  part  of  the 
year  1890  I  was  a  confirmed  atheist.  I  had  read  some- 
thing of  spiritualism,  but  lacked  the  positive  evidence 
of  spirit  return,  or  life  after  the  so-called  death. 
About  this  time  there  came  a  lady  from  the  East  to 
San  Francisco,  by  the  name  of  Mrs.  Helen  Fairchild, 
whom  I  had  often  heard  spoken  of  as  one  of  the  best 
mediums  for  the  phase  of  full-form  materialization 
to  be  fQund  in  the  United  States ;  so  I  decided  to  have 
a  private  circle  with  her,  for  in  case  I  found  it  only  a 
fake,  there  would  be  only  the  medium  and  myself  to 


(  155  ) 

do  the  laughing  act.  I  found  she  did  not  have  to  go 
into  the  cabinet  at  all,  but  remained  out  in  the  room 
all  the  time,  although  at  the  time  she  was  under  the 
control  of  an  Indian  woman  by  the  name  of  Forest 
Queen.  When  the  seance  began,  Queen  gave  me  the 
names  of  six  or  eight  people  that  I  had  not  thought  of 
for  forty  years, — some  of  them  boys  that  I  had  not 
seen  since  I  was  ten  years  old, — and  gave  me  an  exact 
description  of  them.  This  was  before  any  spooks 
came  out.  Well,  to  say  it  staggered  me,  is  the  solid 
fact.  Then  something  touched  me  on  the  knee.  I 
looked  down,  and,  as  I  looked,  a  bright  spot  came  on 
the  floor  at  my  feet  and  began  to  rise.  I  saw  it  was  a 
man,  and  no  mistake,  with  long  gray  beard.  As  his 
face  came  opposite  to  mine,  he  began  to  speak,  when 
1  felt  his  warm  breath  strike  my  face.  I  could  see  the 
carpet  very  plainly.  When  he  got  through  growing, 
I  found  he  was  a  man  about  six  feet  high  and  ap- 
parently fifty-five  years  old,  who  gave  the  name  of 
Doctor  Rush,  and  claimed  to  be  the  medium's  guide. 

Well,  I  will  admit  that,  as  this  was  my  first  point- 
blank  evidence  of  a  genuine  ghost,  that  I  was  knocked 
out  the  first  round.  I  was  not  in  the  least  nervous  or 
frightened,  but  talked  to  him  as  natural  as  you 
please ;  but  I  mean  by  "  knocked  out "  that  I  was 
perfectly  satisfied  that  there  was  no  shenanigan,  and 
that  I  was  looking  at  a  full-fledged  ghost. 

Well,  in  a  few  minutes  the  Doctor  retired,  when  a 
very  handsome  young  lady  came  out  and  gave  the 
name  of  Sylvia,  stating  that  she  was  my  guardian 
angel,  etc.  I  listened  to  her,  and  was  as  polite  as  a 
French  dancing-master,  when  suddenly  she  kissed  me 


(  156  ) 

on  the  cheek.  That  did  settle  it!  Then  she  said  she 
would  have  to  go  to  recover  strength.  I  did  not  blame 
her,  for  that  kiss  was  too  much  for  the  first  dose — and 
I  a  stranger  and  a  greenhorn.  I  said  to  myself: 
"  Young  lady,  you  are  awful  good-looking ;  but  if  you 
think  you  can  play  it  on  this  old  rounder  and  get  away 
with  the  goods,  you  will  be  a  heap  sight  smarter  than  I 
am  willing  to  give  you  credit  for."  The  fact  is,  I  did 
not  believe  that  she  was  a  ghost  at  all,  you  see.  That 
kiss  was  the  pure  quill,  and  she  could  not  fool  the  old 
man  just  a  little  bit;  he  had  been  there  before — or  he 
thought  he  had. 

Then  she  began  to  settle  down — through  the  floor, 
apparently — until  she  disappeared  entirely.  Well, 
there  I  was  flabbergasted  again,  and  had  to  take  it  all 
back;  for  I  knew  that  no  human  could  go  down 
through  that  floor  without  a  trap,  and  I,  being  a 
builder  and  able  to  see  the  carpet  at  my  feet,  knew 
there  was  none  there.  After  several  other  spirits  had 
come  and  gone,  the  seance  ended. 

Well,  reader,  as  that  was  my  first  experience,  I  am 
willing  that  you  shall  say  "  Chump !  '^  for  when  I 
came  away  I  was  half  inclined  to  think  so  myself. 
Still,  I  had  seen  either  too  much  or  too  little,  and 
made  up  my  mind  to  see  it  out  and  learn  the  truth  if 
it  took  all  summer  and  I  had  to  go  broke.  Just  so, 
just  so.  I  found  that  it  did  take  si?:  months  and  just 
one  thousand  dollars ;  and  not  one  dollar  of  it  would 
I  recall  and  be  without  the  lesson  and  the  experience. 

I  will  now  give  you  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
seances  that  I  have  ever  witnessed.  It  was  the  slow 
building  up  of  the  spirit  Sylvia  in  a  strictly  private 


(  157  ) 

seance.  The  rooms  were  a  pair  of  double  parlors, 
about  twelve  by  fourteen  feet  square,  with  six-foot 
sliding-doors  between  them.  The  cabinet  was  in  the 
front  parlor,  and  cut  no  figure  in  the  seance  whatever. 
On  one  side  of  the  sliding-doors  by  the  wall  was  a 
small  coal-oil  lamp.  This  was  covered  by  a  piece  of 
red  tissue-paper  to  take  the  sharp  glare  off  the  light, 
and  was  about  six  feet  up  from  the  floor.  Under  this 
light  and  at  the  jamb  of  the  door  I  took  my  seat,  and 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  door,  about  seven  feet 
away,  the  medium  seated  herself,  under  control  of 
Queen.  The  light  was  just  strong  enough  to  see 
easily  all  the  objects  in  both  rooms.  After  sitting  for 
about  five  minutes,  I  noticed,  about  eighteen  inches 
from  the  medium's  side,  a  faint  light,  barely  discerni- 
ble, and  about  six  inches  wide  and  five  feet  high.  I 
kept  my  eye  on  it,  and  saw  that  it  was  getting  lighter, 
until  it  had  the  appearance  of  the  dawn  of  daylight, 
though  clear,  and  I  could  see  through  it.  At  the  ex- 
piration of  a  couple  of  minutes  it  began  to  take  on  a 
denser  form,  until  it  had  the  appearance  of  a  round 
column  of  chalk  turned  true  in  a  lathe.  I  kept  up  a 
conversation  with  Queen,  but  kept  my  eye  on  the 
column,  when  it  deliberately  and  slowly  widened  out 
at  the  bottom  until  it  took  the  form  of  a  spirit  draped 
in  white,  the  drapery  extending  up  to  and  around 
over  where  the  head  ought  to  have  been,  but  I  could 
see  no  head ;  then,  in  a  flash,  came  the  eyes,  nose  and 
mouth,  but  no  hair;  then,  while  I  am  writing,  it  came 
— the  beautiful  black  curls — when  I  recognized  her  as 
Sylvia.  She  stepped  over  to  me  and  said  she  thought 
she  would  show  me  how  she  made  herself  up.     She 


CTbrTT^ 


OF  THE 


UNIVERSITY 


(  159  ) 

then  stepped  away  to  the  right  about  three  feet,  when 
she  slowly  sank  through  the  floor.  In  less  than  a 
minute  she  rose  out  of  the  floor  in  another  place,  came 
over  to  me  and  spoke  to  me,  when  she  sank  again  to 
the  left.  This  performance  was  repeated  five  or  six 
times,  and  occupied  about  twenty  minutes.  Skeptics 
and  know-it-alls  will  here  note  that  the  cabinet  played 
no  part  in  it,  nor  was  the  medium  out  of  my  sight  for 
a  single  minute. 

So  much  by  way  of  my  initiation.  I  will  now  give 
you  an  account  of  my  marriage  with  the  spirit  Sylvia. 
We  had  been  expecting  to  secure  conditions  for  this 
event  for  several  weeks,  and  finally  the  day  was  fixed 
upon.  I  took  the  precaution  to  take  along  my  own 
bottle  of  wine,  as  they  said  they  would  be  able  to 
drink  our  health.  On  the  day  we  opened  the  seance, 
out  came  Sylvia,  and  my  sister  Rhoda,  as  the  best 
lady,  and  Charley  H.  Foster,  the  old  medium  who  had 
passed  the  Rubicon  some  ten  or  fifteen  years  before. 
He  was  my  second  cousin  and  claimed  to  be  my  con- 
trol and  was  to  act  as  my  best  man.  Then  came 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  Sylvia's  father,  who  claimed 
to  be  my  guide ;  then  Forest  Queen.  We  all  stood  up 
in  a  semicircle,  and  Ptolemy  began  the  wedding  cere- 
mony. After  getting  about  half  through  he  broke 
down,  and  had  to  wait  about  two  minutes,  when  he 
finished;  then  they  all  retired,  when  Ptolemy  came 
out  alone  and  sat  down  in  a  chair  by  my  side  at  a 
small  deal  table  upon  which  I  had  placed  some  wine, 
cake,  and  a  box  of  cigars.  He  asked  me  what  it  was 
I  had  on  the  table.  I  told  him  it  was  some  wine  and 
cake  to  entertain  my  friends  with,  and  invited  him  to 


(  160  ) 

partake.  "  Certainly  I  will,"  he  replied.  I  picked  up 
the  bottle  of  wine  to  pour  it  in  a  glass,  when  Ptolemy 
began  to  smile.  I  wondered  what  he  saw  to  laugh  at, 
^\hen  I  noticed  that,  in  my  anxiety  to  see  him  drink 
the  wine,  I  had  forgotten  to  draw  the  cork.  However, 
1  filled  a  glass  for  him,  but  he  stood  looking  at  me,  and 
finally  asked  me  if  I  was  not  going  to  join  him.  I  had 
again  forgotten  myself.  The  fact  was,  I  will  own  up, 
I  was  just  a  trifle  rattled. 

Well,  he  clinked  glasses  with  me,  and,  you  may 
depend  upon  it,  I  watched  that  glass  of  his,  rattled  or 
not  rattled;  and  he  certainly  swallowed  all  of  the 
wine.  I  had  also  given  him  a  piece  of  the  cake,  which 
I  had  a  close  eye  on,  and  I  noticed  that,  while  he 
placed  the  cake  to  his  mouth,  he  did  not  take  any  of 
the  cake  into  his  mouth.  So  I  asked  the  reason.  He 
replied  that,  while  it  was  not  difficult  to  dematerialize 
a  fluid,  he  found  he  could  not  so  readily  dematerialize 
a  solid ;  but  he  gave  me  a  long  spiritual  toast,  which  I 
returned  to  the  best  of  my  poor  ability. 

He  then  retired  to  the  cabinet,  and  Sylvia  and 
Rhoda  came  out  and  sat  one  on  each  side  of  me,  with  a 
glass  of  wine.  But  I  chided  them  that  they  were  not 
drinking  the  wine,  but  only  pretending  to.  Sylvia 
replied :  "  You  know  we  do  not  drink  wine.  It  is 
only  to  please  you."  After  they  had  sat  about  ten 
minutes  they  arose,  and  Sylvia  retired  within  the 
cabinet,  while  Ehoda  took  my  hand  and  began  to  ap- 
parently sink  through  the  floor,  talking  as  she  went. 
I  had  a  fair  grip  on  her  hand  and  wondered  what 
would  become  of  her  hand,  for  I  intended  to  hang  on  to 
it  like  grim  death  to  a  dead  nigger.    When  only  her 


( 161 ) 

hand  was  left,  it  melted  into  nothing,  and  there  was 
my  hand,  partly  closed.  I  was  looking  at  her  hand  for 
all  that  I  was  worth.  It  just  simply  turned  to  noth- 
ing. Then  Charley  Foster  came  out  and  took  a  glass 
of  wine  and  a  cigar ;  then  old  man  Massasoit,  who  is 
my  cabinet  spirit,  came  out  and  took  a  cigar.  In  fact, 
there  were  eleven  spirits  came  out,  seven  of  whom 
each  drank  a  glass  of  wine ;  and  when  the  seance  was 
over,  I  noticed  there  was  about  one-fourth  of  the  wine 
left. 

It  was  quite  a  common  occurrence  with  me  to  pre- 
sent the  spirit  Sylvia  with  a  large  bouquet  of  flowers, 
and  frequently  she  would  dematerialize  in  front  of 
fifteen  or  twenty  people,  flowers  and  all,  and  no  traces 
of  the  flowers  could  afterwards  be  found.  I  have  often 
stood  within  twelve  inches  of  her  when  she  would 
begin  to  sink  down,  holding  the  flowers  in  her  hand. 
When  she  would  be  about  three  feet  above  the  floor, 
she  and  the  flowers  would  vanish  to  apparent  nothing- 
ness. 

During  these  seances  with  Mrs.  Fairchild,  Ptolemy 
suggested  that  he  be  allowed  to  give  me  a  series  of 
writing  seances,  to  Avhich  I  consented.  It  was  done 
in  this  manner :  The  medium  procured  a  new  blank 
tablet,  about  eight  by  ten  inches.  This.  I  carefully 
inspected  before  every  seance.  This  blank-book  was 
then  laid  on  a  chair  in  the  cabinet,  and  Mrs.  F. — under 
control  of  Queen,  of  course — would  take  her  seat  by 
me  in  the  room,  and  we  would  indulge  in  an  ordinary 
conversation.  Sometimes  it  would  be  such  light  and 
frivolous  gossip  as  women  usually  like  to  while  away 
the  time  with. 


(  162  ) 

I  was  always  careful  to  observe  that  neither  Queen 
nor  any  of  the  other  spirits  who  called  on  me  could  or 
would  enter  into  an  explanation  of  the  real  practical 
law  governing  the  phenomena  of  materialization ;  that 
is,  their  answers  were  always  vague  and  unsatisfac- 
tory, in  a  practical  o:^  scientific  sense,  I  found  it  the 
same  with  C.  V.  Miller  and  all  others  whom  I  ques- 
tioned on  the  matter,  and  it  is  my  candid  opinion  that 
they  are  as  ignorant  of  the  laws  governing  the  phenom- 
ena as  the  rest  of  the  rank  and  file  of  spiritualists. 
Mrs.  Fairchild  once  said  to  me,  in  a  burst  of  confi- 
dence :  "  Mr.  Foster,  sometimes  when  I  am  alone  I 
often  wonder  to  myself,  can  it  really  be  true  that  these 
forms  that  come  into  my  room  are  indeed  those  who 
we  think  are  dead?  I  know  that  I  ought  to  be  the 
last  one  in  the  world  to  hold  such  thoughts,  after 
fifteen  years  of  experience;  yet  I  sometimes  cannot 
help  it,  it  does  seem  so  impossible." 

But  this  is  wandering  from  our  subject.  During 
the  writing  seance,  which  would  last  about  one  hour, 
there  would  sometimes  come  out  of  the  cabinet  one 
or  two  spirits  to  entertain  me  and  break  the  monot- 
ony. At  the  end  of  the  hour  we  would  take  the  book 
out  and  read  it,  and  it  would  prove  quite  interesting. 
I  found  that  at  every  seance  they  would  write  about 
five  or  six  hundred  words  with  a  lead  pencil.  These 
writings  consisted  of  a  description  of  Ptolemy's  coro- 
nation and  reign  in  Egypt,  and  will  be  found  attached 
to  this  volume.  After  I  had  had  about  twenty  sittings, 
Ptolemy  concluded  to  dispense  with  the  writings,  stat- 
ing that  he  would  finish  them  at  some  future  time, 
through  my  own  forces ;  and  I  presume  that  the  birth 


(163) 

of  this  volume  on  Occult  Science  is  the  fulfillment  of 
that  promise, — for  you  will  allow  me  to  assert  one 
thing  positively,  and  that  is,  that  it  is  not  the  off- 
spring of  my  intelligence,  several  truths  being  ad- 
vanced in  this  book  which  were  contrary  to  my 
convictions,  and  until  they  entered  into  an  explana- 
tion of  materialization  on  the  automaton  and  hypno- 
tism principles,  I  was  in  the  same  mystified  condition 
as  all  other  writers  on  that  phenomenon,  and  I  was 
puzzled  to  account  for  it  in  any  rational  manner,  after 
sj)ending  thirteen  hundred  dollars  in  the  investigation 
of  materialization  alone.  As  was  also  the  cause  of 
the  declination  of  the  earth's  axis,  that  which  thinks 
thoughts,  etc. 

I  will  now  give  you  a  description  of  a  few  remark- 
able seances  which  I  had  with  C.  V.  Miller,  of  San 
Francisco.  But  allow  me  first  to  state  that  I  had  been 
accustomed  to  receive  an  occasional  spirit  letter  from 
Ptolemy,  Sylvia,  Chas.  Poster,  Massasoit,  Rhoda,  and 
others  of  my  band,  through  Mrs.  Fairchild's  forces 
from  the  city  of  Denver,  Colorado,  and  this  was  before 
I  was  acquainted  with  Mr.  Miller.  In  one  of  these 
letters  from  Ptolemy  he  stated  to  me  that  away  out  in 
the  Pacific  Ocean  there  was  an  island,  etc.  I  will  here 
include  an  article  that  I  wrote  at  the  time  for  the 
Progressive  Thinker  and  let  it  speak  for  itself. 


(  164  ) 

"  PHENOMENAL— SOME    CUKIOUS    MANI- 
FESTATIONS. 

"  A  STRANGE  ISLAND  AND  A  COPPER-COLORED  RACE. 

^-  Wonderful  manifestations  at  a  materializing  seance 
— A  peculiar  stone  brought  from  an  island — A 
bracelet  from  a  mummy  casket — Materialized  form 
illuminated, 

^'  To  the  Editor :  A  short  time  ago  I  noticed  an 
article  in  your  paper,  evidently  from  an  investigator 
like  myself  into  the  various  phases  of  spirit  communi- 
cation, inquiring  why,  when  you  ask  a  question  of  a 
spirit,  if  you  want  '  yes '  you  get  '  yes,'  and  '  no ' 
when  you  want  '  no.'  Now,  while  I  admit  that  my 
experience  has  been  somewhat  similar  when  investi- 
gating the  phases  generally  understood  as  clair- 
voyant, or  trance  mediums,  or  dark  circles,  I  find  it 
altogether  different  with  a  good  materializing  medium 
in  a  strong  light,  when  the  investigator  can  bring  to 
bear  on  the  truth  of  the  question,  at  one  and  the  same 
time,  at  least  four  out  of  his  five  or  six  senses ;  and,  if 
you,  Mr.  Editor,  will  kindly  give  to  the  many  readers 
of  The  Progressive  Thinker  the  following  article  (pro- 
vided it  is  not  too  long),  they  will  see  that '  yes  '  and 
'  no '  cut  no  figure.  Said  article  embraces  a  series 
of  three  or  four  of  the  most  remarkable  materializing 
seances  that  I  have  ever  read  about,  and,  knowing  it 
will  tax  the  credulity  of  even  old  '  stagers,'  I  shall 
affix  my  affidavit  to  the  same. 

"  Eight  months  ago  I  received  a  written  communi- 
cation from  two  members  of  my  band  of  spirits, 


(  165  ) 

through  the  forces  of  Mrs.  Helen  Fairchild,  then 
located  in  Denver,  Colorado,  telling  me  that  far  in 
the  Pacific  Ocean  there  was  an  island  inhabited  by  a 
copper-colored  race  of  people,  who  were  very  medium- 
istic  and  of  a  kind  and  gentle  disposition.  These 
people  were  governed  by  an  old  king  who  was  over  a 
hundred  years  old ;  that  in  the  possession  of  this  king 
were  a  pair  of  stones  of  great  value,  which  the  spirits 
wished  to  secure  for  their  temple,  as  the  island  and  its 
people  were  soon  to  be  destroyed  by  a  tidal  wave. 
Well,  I  placed  the  letter  in  my  drawer  and  told  no  one 
or  thought  but  little  about  it.  Three  months  ago  I 
heard  of  Mr.  C.  V.  Miller,  of  San  Francisco,  as  being 
a  remarkable  materializing  medium,  and,  as  has  been 
my  custom  for  the  last  three  or  four  years,  I  went  to 
him  to  satisfy  myself.  I  gave  him  no  information  as 
to  myself  or  even  the  name  of  my  spirit  friends.  At 
the  third  sitting  there  came  out  of  the  cabinet  a  spirit 
who  seemed  to  be  an  Indian  and  placed  in  my  hand  a 
peculiar  stone.  I  will  give  here  the  conversation  that 
took  place  between  us : — 

"  Q.    ^  Where  did  you  get  this  stone?  ' 

"A.  '  I  brought  it  from  an  island  far  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean.' 

"  Q.    '  Where  did  you  come  from?  ' 

"A.    '  I  came  from  that  island.' 

"  Q.    '  Tell  me  something  about  that  stone.' 

"A.  ^You  will  soon  be  given  another  and  some- 
thing else.' 

"  Q.  '  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  this  is  one  of 
the  two  stones  that  I  have  already  been  told  of?  ' 

"A.    at  is.' 


(  166  ) 

"  Q.    ^  What  else  can  you  tell  me  of  them? ' 
"A.    *  That  is  all  I  was  instructed  to  say/ 
"  When  he  immediately  dematerialized  at  my  feet. 
"  One  week  after  that,  old  Chief  Massasoit,  an  In- 
dian that  has  been  with  me  for  seven  years,  and 
another  Indian,  called  '  War  Cloud,'  came  out  of  the 
cabinet  together,  and  placed  in  my  hands  a  curious 
bracelet  composed  of  twenty-one  beads,  about  three 
eighths  of  an  inch  in  diameter.     Eighteen  of  these 
beads  were  covered  with   an  engraved   pattern   of 
Egyptian  scroll-work  and  all  highly  perfumed  with  a 
peculiar  odor   that   always   accompanies   my   spirit 
Sylvia,  daughter  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus.     He  told 
me  he  got  it  out  of  a  mummy  casket  in  an  Egyptian 
tomb. 

"  In  a  few  days  after  receiving  the  island  stone,  I 
heard  of  a  good  psychologist  in  Oakland  by  the  name 
of  Little.  I  went  and  had  a  sitting  with  him  (mind, 
we  had  never  before  met) .  I  let  him  go  on  for  a  while, 
and  found  that  he  did  possess  good  powers.  I  then  took 
from  my  pocket  the  stone  and  gave  it  to  him  to  read. 
He  immediately  answered :  ^  This  stone  takes  me 
away  out  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  a  little  south  of  west — 
to  a  little  pear-shaped  island.  This  island  is  the  top  of 
a  range  of  mountains  that  went  down  with  Atlantis.' 
I  could  get  no  more  from  him.  About  a  month  after 
this,  I,  with  nine  others,  had  a  private  sitting  with 
Miller,  when  the  spirit  son  of  one  of  the  gentlemen 
present  came  out  side  by  side  with  the  medium  and 
posed  before  a  snap-shot  kodak  for  two  different 
pictures.  These  pictures  I  have  seen,  and  the  gentle- 
man,  his   wife,   and   daughter   all   pronounce  it  a 


(  168  ) 

wonderful  likeness.  At  this  seance  old  Massasoit 
came  out.  The  gentleman  gave  him  a  cigar  and  re- 
quested him  to  light  and  smoke  it.  He  retired  to  the 
cabinet,  and  in  a  moment  returned  with  the  cigar  fully 
lighted,  and  stayed  for  five  minutes,  smoking  away 
like  an  old  stager.  At  this  same  seance  my  friend 
Sylvia  came  out  and  gave  to  me  the  other  stone,  weigh- 
ing about  one  pound,  with  private  instructions  re- 
garding it. 

"  One  week  previous  to  this  seance,  I  had  a  strictly 
private  seance  with  Miller,  when  Sylvia  came  out  and 
said  she  was  going  to  stay  half  an  hour.  Well,  I  have 
seen  over  five  thousand  single  cases  of  full-form 
materialization  and  many  illuminated  ones,  but  this 
spirit  far  overtopped  any  illumination  that  I  ever  be- 
fore beheld.  Not  only  was  the  lace  shawl  illuminated, 
but,  seemingly,  all  of  her  under  garments  and  around 
the  flesh  of  her  neck,  for  half  an  inch  above  the  collar 
of  her  dress,  the  flesh  itself  was  fully  illuminated,  not 
in  spots,  but  of  one  uniform  brightness.  She  requested 
me  to  call  in  the  landlady  to  see  her.  After  sitting 
for  about  ten  minutes,  I  opened  the  hall  door  and  a 
full  flood  of  light  shone  on  the  spirit,  while  she  sat 
there  as  unconcerned  as  you  please.  She  then  gathered 
up  a  double  handful  of  her  garments  and  placed  them 
in  my  hands.  Well,  the  only  way  I  can  describe  it  is 
that  it  seemed  as  though  I  was  holding  onto  the  corner 
of  a  rain  cloud  with  the  sun  shining  behind  it.  At  the 
same  seance  Aunt  Betsy  came  out,  an  old  colored 
lady,  and  one  of  the  controls.  After  sitting  with  us 
about  fifteen  minutes,  and  drinking  a  glass  of  wine, 
she  arose  and  stood  about  three  feet  from  the  cabinet 


(169  ) 

in  a  strong  light  and  turned  into  old  Massasoit.  The 
transformation  occupied  about  two  minutes,  when  he 
came  and  talked  to  us  for  about  five  minutes.  By  the 
way,  I  forgot  to  mention  that  Sylvia  stayed  out  with 
us  fully  half  an  hour. 

"  I  then  made  arrangements  with  Dr.  Johnson,  an 
amateur  photographer,  to  bring  his  kodak  and  try  for 
a  snap-shot  picture  of  the  spirit  Sylvia.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  for  eight  persons  in  the  circle,  and 
it  was  a  perfect  success,  as  she  came  and  posed  for 
three  different  pictures.  A  copy  of  each  I  send  you 
with  this  communication. 

"  Mr.  Miller  has,  by  invitation,  given  a  number  of 
seances  in  private  residences  where  I  was  present, 
and  always  sits  outside  of  the  cabinet  for  the  first  half 
hour,  when  from  twenty  to  thirty  forms  will  come, 
and  most  of  them  give  the  full  name,  and  with  the 
light  always  strong  enough  to  plainly  see  him  and  the 
cabinet,  which  explodes  the  trap-door  and  confederate 
business,  as  there  is  no  opening  near  the  cabinet,  and  1 
can  cheerfully  recommend  him  to  any  one,  if  he  should 
visit  any  of  your  Eastern  cities,  as  a  genuine,  honest 
medium.  C.  H.  Foster. 

"Alameda,  Cal. 

"  Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  twenty- 
sixth  day  of  December,  1894. 

[SEAL.]  James  B.  Barber, 

"  Notary  Public." 

But  I  have  again  gone  ahead  of  my  story ;  for  I 
should  have  informed  you  that,  when  Mrs.  Fairchild 
was  about  to  depart  from  San  Francisco,  my  spirit 


(  170  ) 

friends  and  myself  agreed  on  a  private  signal  to  be 
kept  between  us,  and  to  be  divulged  to  no  one  what- 
ever. As  I  do  not  intend  that  this  work  shall  be  pub- 
lished until  I  shall  have  crossed  the  Great  Divide,  I 
will  here  state  what  that  signal  was :  Each  of  my  five 
principal  spirits,  in  the  order  that  I  have  enumerated 
them  above,  were,  in  their  conversation,  or  any  other 
convenient  way  suitable  to  the  time  or  place,  to  weave 
in  their  conversation  to  me  their  number  as  we  had 
agreed  upon.  For  instance,  if  Sylvia  were  to  come 
to  me  through  some  other  medium,  she,  in  talking  to 
me,  would  use  the  word  or  figure  two,  twice,  or  second, 
ae  that  was  her  number  (such  as,  "  I  have  twice  tried 
to  convince  you  '' ) .  It  was  understood  that  if  I  called 
for  that  test  and  it  was  not  given,  then  I  could  depend 
upon  it  that  it  was  not  she,  but  some  other  spirit 
personating  her.  This,  she  assured  me,  was  a  common 
occurrence,  and  could  be  carried  out  so  successfully 
that  I  could  not  tell  the  difference. 

Well,  at  my  first  sitting  with  Mr.  Miller,  Sylvia 
came  out  and  gave  the  test,  although  she  was  made  up 
differently,  which  experience  had  taught  me  was  noth- 
ing unusual,  as  each  medium  and  their  band  use  these 
laws  to  suit  their  own  conditions,  the  same  as  two 
mechanics  will  often  pursue  opposite  courses  to  ac- 
complish the  same  end. 

I  will  now  give  you  a  description  of  a  couple  of 
seances  I  had  with  the  Campbell  Brothers,  in  which 
I  received  two  oil  paintings,  one  of  Sylvia  and  one  of 
Ptolemy,  in  size  seven  by  eleven  inches.  Upon  taking 
my  seat  at  a  small  deal  table  in  a  room  about  eight  by 
ten  feet  with  a  mantel  in  it,  on  which  mantel  was 
placed  a  large  family  lamp  fully  illuminated,  and  so 


(  172  ) 

kept,  the  medium  gave  me  a  pair  of  slates  about  eight 
bj  twelve  inches  and  a  piece  of  dry  sized  artist  canvas 
and  requested  me  to  put  the  canvas  between  the  slates, 
lie  then  snapped  a  rubber  band  on  them  and  placed 
a  small  saucer  of  various  colors  of  paint  on  the  slates 
and  gave  them  to  me  to  hold,  and  then  began  to  walk 
the  floor.  In  a  few  minutes  he  was  controlled  bj 
Sylvia,  who  informed  me  if  I  would  hold  my  hands 
together  she  would  give  me  her  ring,  and  when  I  came 
the  next  night  to  get  her  father's  picture  I  should 
bring  her  a  ring  in  exchange,  and  the  first  time  we  met 
at  any  other  medium's  seance  she  would  show  me  the 
ring  to  convince  me  it  was  she.  I  placed  my  hands 
together  as  requested,  when  she  placed  in  them  a  ring 
containing  two  opals  and  tivo  garnets  (the  signal)  as 
a  setting.  In  tAventy  minutes  from  the  time  of  closing 
the  slates,  the  oil  painting  was  finished,  a  picture  that 
professional  artists  tell  me  would  take  them  ten  hours 
at  least  to  accomplish.  I  touched  it  and  found  it 
perfectly  wet,  and  had  to  leave  it  with  him  for  a  couple 
of  days  to  dry.  The  next  day  I  bought  a  small 
diamond  ring  of  a  peculiar  make,  one  that  I  could 
easily  recognize  in  a  seance  room  at  any  time.  When 
I  took  my  seat  for  Ptolemy's  picture,  I  asked  her  how" 
I  was  to  give  her  the  ring.  She  replied :  "  O,  just  place 
it  on  the  slates  and  hold  them  under  the  table  for  a 
moment."  I  did  so,  and  in  a  moment  raps  came.  I 
withdrew  the  slates,  and  the  ring  was  gone.  Now, 
mind,  all  this  time  the  medium  was  walking  up  and 
down  the  floor  in  the  full  light  of  the  lamp,  and  never 
came  near  the  table.  In  twenty  minutes  by  my  watch, 
the  picture  was  finished.  For  those  two  pictures  I 
paid  fifty  dollars. 


(  174  ) 

And  now  the  sequel.  About  two  weeks  after  this 
I  saw  in  the  paper  that  the  Eeverend  Jenny  More, 
from  Chicago,  was  giving  seances  in  the  city ;  so,  with- 
out any  warning  to  any  one,  I  attended  a  seance. 
Every  one  in  the  room,  including  the  medium,  some 
fifteen  people,  were  strangers  to  me.  I  did  not  give 
my  name,  but  took  my  seat  with  the  rest.  In  about 
half  an  hour  after  the  seance  had  begun,  the  medium 
said  there  was  a  spirit  that  came  to  the  old  gentleman 
with  the  gray  beard,  meaning  myself,  and  she  gave  the 
name  of  Sylvia.  I  replied,  "  Yes ;  I  know  a  spirit  by 
that  name,"  when  Sylvia  presented  herself  at  the 
aperture  in  the  cabinet  (this  medium  does  not  give 
full-form  materialization — only  the  bust).  I  said  to 
the  spirit,  "  If  you  are  my  Sylvia,  the  last  time  we  met 
there  was  a  transaction  between  us  whereby  you 
agreed  to  give  me  the  evidence  that  it  was  you."  She 
smiled,  raised  her  hand,  and  drew  from  her  finger  a 
ring  precisely  like  the  one  I  had  given  her.  Then  she 
replaced  the  ring,  looked  at  me  and  smiled,  and  again 
withdrew  the  ring  and  replaced  it — twice — the  signal! 
M^ho  could  doubt  it? 

While  giving  my  own  experience,  it  will  be  in  order 
to  say  to  you  that  when  I  first  made  the  acquaintance 
of  my  spirit  friends,  Ptolemy  gave  me  his  object  in 
returning  to  earth,  which,  he  claimed,  was  for  the 
purpose  of  fulfilling  certain  prophecies  of  Daniel, 
stating  what  they  were,  and  asked  my  co-operation, 
which  I  agreed  to  give  him,  conditionally.  One  of 
these  conditions  was  that,  as  they  (the  spirits) 
claimed  that  I  possessed  peculiar  mediumistic  powers 
which  they  wished  to  develop  for  their  purposes  {the 


(175  ) 

old,  old  cry,  generally  used  to  induce  you  to  spend 
your  money  with  their  medium  through  your  creduli- 
ty),! agreed  that  if  they  would  give  me  unmistakable 
evidence  that  I  possessed  such  forces,  by  coming  to  my 
room  in  the  city  of  Alameda  and  knock  a  book  from 
off  the  table  at  which  I  generally  sat  reading  of  an 
evening,  or  hit  me  a  blow  that  I  would  undoubtedly 
feel,  or  write  or.  mark  on  the  slates  when  I  was  sitting 
for  development,  and  thereby  prove  to  me  the  truth 
of  their  assertion,  then  I  would  continue  my  sittings 
for  several  years, — provided  that  they  would  give 
me  some  evidence  from  time  to  time  that  they  were 
still  trying  to  accomplish  their  desires. 

They  told  me  that  I  must  be  prepared  to  wait ;  that 
they  could  not  tell  me  how  long  it  would  take,  but 
must  make  patience,  perseverance,  and  fidelity  my 
watchword.  Well,  in  about  one  year  or  so — I  do  not 
remember  exactly — I  got  slate-writing  once  only.  I 
had  been  sitting  with  Fred  Evans  for  about  three 
weeks  a  year  before.  His  guide,  John  Gray,  advised 
me  to  pay  his  medium  fire  dollars  for  a  pair  of  mag- 
netized slates,  as  it  would  assist  my  development,  and 
while  I  took  no  stock  in  the  assertion,  still,  to  please 
them,  I  bought  the  slates,  which  cost  Mr.  Evans  the 
magnificent  sum  of  ten  cents.  "  Chump  again,"  I  hear 
you  say.  Yes;  but  I  was  seeking  positive  evidence, 
not  belief,  as  you  shall  see,  and  I  got  it.  At  the  same 
time  I  bought  two  slates  of  the  same  size  from  a 
stationery-store  in  Alameda.  Now,  I  made  up  my 
mind  that  I  would  first  sit  a  month  with  Evans's 
slates,  then  the  alternate  month  with  the  common 
slates.    About  a  year  afterwards  I  went  into  the  cabi- 


(  176  ) 

net  on  my  usual  day,  at  7 :30  a.m.^  with  the  common 
slates.  In  a  half-hour  I  came  out,  when  for  the  first 
time,  I  noticed  that  both  sides — i.  e.  outsides — of  the 
slates  were  scratched  all  over.  I  opened  the  slates 
and  found  seven  names  in  different  handwritings. 
Four  of  the  names  were  Mary,  Sofa,  Charley,  and  Wil- 
ber ;  the  other  three  were  only  two  thirds  written,  so  I 
could  not  make  them  out. 

And  now  for  those  wonderful  magnetized  slates. 
When  I  went  to  place  my  slates  in  the  bureau  drawer 
with  Mr.  Evans's  slates,  I  saw  that  his  were  also 
covered  on  the  outside  with  scratches,  and  when  I 
opened  them  nothing  but  scratches  met  my  eye.  And 
thus,  by  patience,  I  secured  known  evidence  in  lieu 
of  belief.  This  was  some  four  or  five  years  ago,  this 
being  June,  1897.  I  always  kept  those  slates,  and  do 
now,  as  clean  as  soap  and  water  will  make  them,  but 
have  had  no  writing  since,  except  an  occasional 
scratch.  Right  here,  to  be  just  to  my  band,  I  will  say 
that  they  warned  me  at  the  beginning  not  to  expect 
manifestations  while  they  were  developing  my  forces ; 
for  to  give  the  manifestations  they  would  have  to  stop 
or  arrest  the  conditions  for  development  while  doing 
so,  and  it  had  the  tendency  to  throw  them  back  in 
their  work. 

Some  six  months  after  that  I  had  an  unmistakable 
clairvoyant  sight  of  the  U.  S.  steamer  Charleston  and 
the  Esmeralda  while  they  were  in  Acapulco  harbor, 
Mexico.  On  another  occasion  I  was  sitting  in  the 
room  of  a  friend's  house  in  a  half-dreamy  state  while 
the  lady  and  her  daughter  and  son-in-law  were 
engaged  in  a  game  of  cards,  when  I  spoke  to  them  in 


(  177  ) 

this  manner :  "  I  see  a  large  amphitheater.  It  seems 
to  be  excavated  out  of  the  side  of  a  hill,  and  is  fifty 
feet  wide  and  a  hundred  feet  deep,  and  has  about 
thirty  tiers  of  seats,  all  packed  full  of  Chinamen. 
Their  faces  are  about  the  size  of  a  five-cent  piece,  yet 
1  see  them  as  plainly  as  though  they  were  full  size. 
This  pit  is  in  the  shape  of  a  horseshoe,*  with  the  heel 
towards  me.  Now,  at  one  heel  of  the  pit  I  see  a  tall 
tower-like  structure,  like  a  Chinese  pagoda.  Now 
there  comes  in  front  of  the  tower  a  coffin  covered  with 
a  black  cloth  which  hangs  to  the  ground.  At  the  head 
of  the  coffin  stands  a  beautiful  white  lady,  evidently 
a  spirit.  She  reaches  over  and  lifts  the  black  cloth, 
and  I  see  a  skeleton  in  the  coffin.  The  skeleton  now 
sits  up  in  the  coffin,  and  the  whole  scene  is  gradually 
melting  away." 

Two  weeks  after  this  the  news  came  from  China 
that  the  Yellow  River  had  overflowed,  and  that  twenty 
thousand  Chinamen  were  drowned.  Several  months 
after  this  I  was  sitting  in  the  cabinet  when  I  noticed 
that  the  forces  were  unusually  strong,  lights  coming 
and  going  continually.  I  thought,  "  Now,  they  are 
going  to  materialize."  While  looking  very  intently, 
there  came  a  voice  within  six  inches  of  my  face  say- 
ing :  "  How  do  you  do,  my  beloved  earth  com- 
panion? "  loud  enough  to  be  heard  plainly  all  over  a 
twelve-foot  room.  Well,  the  hair  of  my  head  rose  up 
on  end  and  the  goose-flesh  was  all  over  me,  not  from 
fright,  but  from  complete  astonishment,  and  when  T 
got  in  that  condition,  of  course  the  forces  vanished. 
At  another  time  I  had  them  grab  me  by  the  shoulders 
and  almost  push  me  off  my  feet.    They  took  me  first 


(  178  ) 

by  the  shoulders,  with  a  pressure  of  almost  ten 
pounds,  then  by  the  elbow,  then  by  the  wrist,  then 
shift  to  the  other  arm  and  repeat,  then  place  a  hand 
between  my  shoulders  and  almost  push  me  off  my  feet. 
I  have  had  lights  roll  around  the  cabinet,  and  several 
times  they  have  reached  out  of  the  cabinet  and  touched 
my  arm  as  I 'passed  it.  iVll  these  phenomena  have 
occurred  when  I  was  least  expecting  them.  So,  you 
see,  my  experience  proves  all  of  these  facts — to  me  at 
least —  as  I  got  them  through  my  own  forces,  and,  so 
far,  the  band  have  kept  their  word. 

I  shall  offer  no  apology  for  all  this  rigma- 
role about  my  own  experience ;  for  I  really  think  that 
it  is  and  ought  to  be  a  part  of  this  book,  and  while  I 
am  not  a  professional  medium,  expecting  no  pecuniary 
gain  from  these  forces  or  from  these  writings,  yet  I 
presume  that  there  are  many  others  who  find  it  hard 
to  distinguish  between  the  real  and  the  false,  and 
find  it  hard  to  settle  the  question.  If  a  man  dies,  shall 
he  live  again?  Spiritualists  will  answer  you  in  the 
affirmative,  while  I  will  answer  you  in  the  negative, 
until  you  can  prove  to  me,  at  least,  that  death  is 
superior  to  life.  For  if  there  is  no  death,  which  I 
affirm,  then  how  can  a  man  die?  You  see,  that  little 
word  "  if  "  represents  another  of  those  false  gods  of 
which  this  work  treats,  and  leads  you  to  erroneously 
presuppose  a  part  of  your  question  in  the  affirmative, 
which  starts  you  on  the  wrong  road,  where  you  will 
find  yourself  groping  in  the  dark. 

CONSISTENCY^  THOU  ART  A  JEWEL! 

How  can  the  spiritualist  consistently  teach  that 
their  phenomena  prove  that  there  is  no  death;   and 


(179) 

yet  they  all  claim  to  answer  Job's  question  in  the 
affirmative? 

If  you  turn  into  a  snake,  can  you  eat  frogs?  Would 
it  not  be  advisable  and  strictly  scientific  to  prove  that 
you  can  turn  to  a  snake  before  taking  up  the  question 
of  what  you  will  need  for  a  diet?  Is  it  any  very  great 
wonder  that  the  people  become  mystified,  when  nearly 
all  of  your  best  writers  keep  constantly  borrowing 
these  old  exploded  ideas,  more  perhaps  for  the  purpose 
of  using  up  printer's  ink  than  for  anything  else — 
such  as  death,  inanimation,  vacuum,  cold,  darkness, 
etc. 


(  181  ) 


CHAPTEK   XXIII. 

A  PARODY  ON  COMMON  SENSE. 

It  appears  to  us  that  this  work  would  lack  comple- 
tion without  a  trifle  of  the  burlesque  on  some  of  the 
absurdities  of  human  opinion  regarding  the  actuality' 
and  condition  of  the  spirit  world.  How  common  it  is 
to  pick  up  almost  any  spiritual  paper  and  find  therein 
the  scoffs,  slurs,  taunts,  and  uncalled-for  insinuations 
of  the  superstitions  and  absurdities  of  other  creeds  I 
Does  it  ever  strike  the  writer  of  such  cheap  literature 
that  it  might  be  just  barely  possible  that  the  house  in 
which  he  himself  lived  had  more  or  less  glass  in' its 
construction? 

How  frequently  we  hear  such  profound  logic  as 
this:  that  there  are  no  animals  in  the  spirit  world, 
and  that  therefore  we  will  not  be  pestered  with  fleas 
and  things,  particularly  rattlesnakes  and  other 
poisonous  objects.  These  same  wise  ones,  in  almost 
the  same  breath,  tell  us  that  coming  events  cast  their 
shadows  before,  and  that  we  build  our  own  atmos- 
phere, or  aura,  in  this  world,  which  follows  us  into  the 
next.  Perhaps  this  may  account  for  their  dread  of 
the  wrath  to  come.  And  yet  these  very  same  writers 
will  tell  us  of  the  beautiful  trees,  flowers,  fruit,  rivers, 
meadows,  birds  of  rare  plumage,  jewels,  buildings, 
cities,  etc.    They  also  acknowledge  that  all  this  is  pro- 


(  182  ) 

duced  in  spirit  from  the  spirit  substance  that  perme- 
ates every  object  and  entity. 

Let  us  advance  a  step  further,  and  apply  a  little 
common  sense  and  inquire,  Are  sour  grapes  an  entity 
or  an  object?  or  the  rattlesnakes,  the  gold-fish,  the 
sheep  for  your  spirit  meadow — for  what  is  a  meadow 
without  sheep? — the  crooked  tree?  Or  are  your 
beautiful  spirit  groves  composed  of  those  perfect  trees 
whose  trunks  are  perfectly  straight,  the  limbs  of  just 
such  a  proportional  length,  every  leaf  of  an  exact 
size  and  placed  precisely  such  a  distance  apart? 
Would  this  not  be  as  monotonous  and  as  absurd  as 
you  charge  to  the  Christian  idea  of  a  personal  God, 
seated  on  a  golden  throne,  with  all  his  chosen  ones 
seated  around  on  silver  camp-stools,  singing  "  Glory 
hallelujah,  glory  hallelujah,'^  for  all  time?  Or  will 
you  tell  us  that  the  sour  grapes,  fleas,  etc.,  have  not 
yet  reached  that  stage  of  perfection  that  entitles  them 
to  a  free  ticket  into  the  spirit  world,  but  that  they 
must  be  relegated  to  the  mills  of  the  gods,  again  to 
be  ground  over?  And  if  this  be  the  law  of  the  vegeta- 
ble and  the  brute,  where  do  you  find  your  line  of  de- 
marcation or  consistency  in  denying  this  same  privi- 
lege to  the  leper,  the  horse- thief ,  the  murderer,  etc.  ? 

Why  not  also  display  the  same  wisdom  and  relegate 
these  and  also  the  chimpanzee,  the  Lilliputian  Afri- 
can? And  while  we  are  so  engaged,  let  us  include 
those  horrible  elementals,  such  as  half  horse  and  half 
man,  and  bar  out  all  that  does  not  just  exactly  come 
up  to  our  idea  or  imagination,  or  else  go  the  whole  hog 
and  fall  back  on  our  forefathers'  ideas  and  beliefs,  and 
elect  a  plurality  of  gods ;  then  every  one  can  build  a 
god  and  a  spirit  world  to  suit  himself. 


(183) 


CHAPTEE   XXIV. 

BIRTHMARKS  AND  OTHER  MALFORMATIONS. 

If  all  objective  formation  was  caused  by  the  life  in 
the  atom  seeking  an  opportunity  to  advance  to  a 
higher  condition,  then  it  stands  to  reason  that  all 
objects  were  formed  by  one  and  the  same  primary  law. 
This  being  the  case,  it  will  naturally  follow  that  the 
shape,  position,  or  condition  of  the  object  will  cut  no 
figure  as  regards  the  spirit  of  an  object — i.  e.  all  ob- 
jects, while  in  a  state  of  development,  are  at  the  same 
time  throwing  off  a  spirit  atmosphere  composed  of 
such  advanced  atoms  as  can  no  longer  find  a  physical 
or  earth  condition  suitable  for  their  use.  Yet  this  at- 
mosphere still  continues  to  surround  and  accompany 
the  object,  receiving  from  time  to  time  additional  pro- 
gressed atoms  from  the  object.  Out  of  this  atmos- 
phere, as  we  have  before  stated,  is  produced  a  spirit. 

Now,  all  spirits,  like  all  objects,  are,  primarily 
speaking,  produced  by  precisely  the  same  funda- 
mental law,  whether  it  be  animal,  vegetable,  mineral, 
fire,  or  any  other  thing.  This  law  follows  the  object 
until  it  is  again  changed.  As  the  perfume  represents 
the  spirit  of  the  apple,  and  is  projected  on  the  human 
brain  in  the  shape  of  vibratory  waves  of  matter,  so 
also  does  a  large  fire,  a  snake,  a  strawberry,  etc.,  pro- 
duce a  spirit. 


(  184  ) 

We  will  first  call  your  attention  to  a  fact  which  we 
have  not  before  had  occasion  to  mention,  in  regard 
to  like  attracting  like,  or  the  aflftnity  that  particular 
kinds  of  atoms  have  for  one  another  or  in  harmony 
with  each  other.  In  this  instance  it  will  be  advisable 
for  us  to  state  that  while  certain  organisms  have  a 
close  affinity  for  each  other,  there  are  periods  of  time, 
— perhaps  a  few  minutes,  days,  months, — ah!  and 
even  years, — when  some  member  of  your  band  and 
your  own  spirit  are  not  in  perfect  harmony ;  and  by 
this  same  law  of  positive  and  negative,  there  are  again 
periods  of  time  when  the  reverse  is  the  case,  and  you 
find  your  sympathetic  attraction  in  such  perfect  har- 
mony that  you  hardly  know  whether  you  are  spirit  or 
mortal. 

Now,  consider  the  mother, — in  this  exceedingly 
high-strung  or  sympathetic  condition,  when  a  sudden 
fire  bursts  upon  her  optic  nerve.  Here  you  find  vast 
quantities  of  vibratory  waves  of  the  spirit  of  the  fire 
rushing  upon  the  optic  nerve  with  inconceivable  ra- 
pidity. This  matter  the  brain  cannot  receive,  classify, 
and  refine  as  fast  as  it  is  forced  upon  it.  The  result 
is  that  a  part  of  it  is  thrown  off  into  the  spirit  atmos- 
phere of  the  mother  before  it  is  properly  refined.  The 
spirit  cannot  receive  it  in  that  condition,  and  it  is 
thrown  back  or  rebounds  on  that  part  of  the  physical 
body  that  is  at  that  instant  in  the  most  receptive  con- 
dition to  receive  it,  which  is  the  foetus.  The  mother 
throws  up  her  hands  before  her  face  in  her  endeavor 
to  ward  off  the  surplus  waves,  her  left  hand  being 
nearest  the  heart  and  her  negative  side;  her  spirit 
being  at  the  same  time  in  a  very  receptive  mood  with 


(185) 

the  fire  spirit,  and  also  in  jTerfect  harmony  with  the 
foetus,  the  overplus  of  the  matter  which  was  thrown 
back  by  her  atmosphere  is  precipitated  on  the  left 
side  of  the  face  of  the  child  in  the  red  atoms  of  the  fire 
spirit.  Had  the  brain  cells  of  color  been  in  a  more 
passive  mood, — i.  e.  not  so  highly  strung  at  the  mo- 
ment,— they  could  have  received  just  so  much  of  the 
wave  of  the  fire  spirit  as  the  cell  was  capable  of  slowly 
refining  into  organized  thought  and  intelligence,  and 
no  abnormal  effect  would  have  occurred.  This  same 
mother  might  have  passed  a  dozen  fires  during  preg- 
nancy, when  her  surrounding  atmosphere  was  in  a 
tranquil  state  at  the  moment  and  not  in  attune  with 
the  fire  or  snake  spirit,  and  in  this  state  no  evil  effect 
would  have  resulted. 

Again,  you  will  find  by  careful  inquiry  that  either 
the  mother  or  the  marked  child,  or,  what  is  more 
likely  to  be  the  case,  hoth  the  mother  and  the  child, 
are  what  is  generally  termed  sensitives  to  these  spirit 
laws.  Take  the  case  of  our  amanuensis,  C.  H.  Foster. 
Though  born  in  1837,  long  before  the  advent  of  your 
so-called  modern  spiritualism,  yet  his  mother  was  a 
medium  and  possessed  good  healing  powers,  he  being 
her  eleventh  child.  We  will  here  give  the  mother's 
version  of  the  affair.  It  was  on  an  afternoon  that  she, 
feeling  somewhat  tired,  being  a  farmer's  wife,  was 
lying  on  a  bed  which  was  placed  beside  an  open  win- 
dow. Her  right  side  was  close  to  the  window.  Some 
three  or  four  feet  below  the  window-sill  was  a  shed 
roof,  and  from  this  roof  sprang  a  hlaclc  cat  onto  the 
window-sill.  As  you  are  aware,  a  cat  jumps  almost 
perpendicularly.     All  she  saw  was  something  hlaclc 


(  186  ) 

suddenly  appear  before  her  eyes.  She  threw  her  left 
hand  across  her  breast  and  grabbed  her  right  arm 
(that  being  nearest  to  the  cat)  half  way  between  the 
elbow  and  her  shoulder.  She  felt  a  queer  shock  in  the 
arm,  and  instantly  kneiv  she  had  marked  her  child. 

Some  eighteen  years  afterwards,  in  trying  to  ex- 
plain it  to  the  boy  how  she  knew  it,  she  said  she  could 
not  explain  the  feeling — that  she  just  knew  it ;  and  as 
she  told  her  sister-in-law  at  the  time,  so  it  proved. 
When  the  child  was  born,  it  had  dark  brown  hair  on 
the  head,  but  on  the  right  arm,  between  the  elbow  and 
shoulder,  was  a  black  or  brown  mark  on  the  skin,  like 
a  bright-colored  negro,  or,  the  same  color  as  the  many 
moles  you  frequently  see  on  people's  faces  or  hands. 
This  mark  was  covered  with  long  black  hair.  The 
mark  at  his  present  age  (sixty  years  )is  about  eight 
inches  long  and  four  inches  broad,  and  is  covered  with 
black  hair,  slightly  gray ;  and,  running  down  the  mid- 
dle of  this  mark,  or  what  might  be  called  its  back,  is 
a  streak  of  dandruff  about  one  inch  broad.  Many 
times  during  his  boyhood  he  would  try  to  scrape  this 
dirty-looking  scurf  off ;  and  as  he  found  it  always  be- 
came very  sore  afterwards,  he  soon  learned  to  let 
it  alone,  as  it  never  troubled  him  when  he  did  so. 

We  will  now  endeavor  to  call  your  attention  to  a 
few  of  the  facts  which  this  case  establishes.  First,  the 
optic  nerve  received  a  sudden  overwhelming  flow  of 
black  color,  and,  being  unable  to  properly  receive  it, 
threw  it  back  on  the  child.  Second,  the  presence  of 
the  dandruff,  similar  in  appearance  to  that  which  is 
found  on  a  cat's  back,  would  show  that  the  atoms  of 
matter  which  surround  the  cat  and  formed  its  spirit 


or  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


(  188  ) 

atmosphere  (similar  to  the  fragranoe  of  the  apple), 
coming  into  sudden  harmony  with  the  optic  nerve, 
and  thence  thrown  hurriedly  on  the  human  atmos- 
phere before  the  brain  had  time  to  carefully  refine  it, 
was,  of  course,  rejected  and  thrown  back  on  the  child. 
It  also  shows  that,  while  the  spirit  of  the  atoms  form- 
ing the  dandruff  had  passed  or  advanced  beyond  the 
physical  body  of  the  cat,  yet  it  was  still  matter.  But 
as  nature's  law  of  advance  or  evolution  is  inexorable, 
it  must  pass  through  the  human  brain  in  an  ordinary 
manner,  there  to  become  refined  into  thought  and  in- 
telligence before  it  can  become  a  part  of  the  human 
atmosphere. 

Another  fact :  This  dandruff  which  was  precipitated 
on  the  human  arm  has  been  watched  by  a  human  eye 
for  years,  and  thus  was  impinged  on  the  brain  in  an 
ordinary  manner  when  it  became  thought  and  was 
advanced  in  a  regular  form  into  the  human  atmos- 
phere. 

A  strawberry  mark  is  produced  in  a  somewhat 
similar  manner.  The  brain  is  in  a  high-strung,  or 
sensitive,  condition,  the  spirit  of  the  strawberry 
comes  in  direct  contact  with  the  brain  in  such  an  over- 
whelming wave  that  the  brain  is  in  a  manner  over- 
loaded, and  it  is  thrown  back  on  the  child  in  the  same 
way. 

Another  point  we  think  will  help  to  clear  your  mind 
on  this  subject  is  that  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that 
there  are  many  individuals  who  can  come  in  contact 
with  a  vicious  dog  or  a  venomous  serpent  or  handle 
fire  almost  with  impunity,  or  will  go  up  to  and,  for  the 
time,  pacify  a  raving  maniac,  while  the  ordinary  man 


(189  ) 

dare  not  come  near  them  without  throwing  the  dog, 
etc.,  into  a  violent  rage.  Here  you  see  the  positive 
and  negative  law  of  harmony  and  inharmony  again 
demonstrated,  and  it  is  accounted  for  in  this  manner : 
The  spirit  atmosphere  of  the  man  was  in  sympathy 
with  or  vibrating  on  the  same  plane  as  the  serpent  or 
dog,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  when  the  atmosphere  of 
the  one  came  into  contact  with  the  other,  each  realized 
a  harmonious  feeling.  This  does  not  imply  that  the 
man  so  endowed  is  on  the  same  spiritual  level  as  the 
serpent,  by  any  means ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  shows 
that  the  one  who  possesses  such  an  atmosphere  has 
developed  that  part  of  his  spiritual  nature  beyond  the 
ordinary  man  to  such  an  extent  that  ev-en  the  brute 
is  his  friend  and  fears  him  not,  though  a  stranger. 

And  if  this  atmosphere  did  not  exist  as  waves  of 
matter  in  motion,  how  is  it  that  you,  when  coming 
into  the  presence  of  some  people,  feel  a  repelling  in- 
fluence, and  in  others  a  sweet,  pleasant,  and  har- 
monious influence?  That  this  is  a  fact  in  your  own 
experience,  you  cannot  deny. 

However,  it  is  advisable  for  us  to  say  that,  though 
one  man  may  be  in  harmony  with  the  dog,  it  is  no  evi- 
dence that  he  is  in  harmony  with  the  leopard,  or  ser- 
pent and  all  the  rest  of  the  brute  creation;  neither 
does  it  follow  that  he  is  in  harmony  with  all  dogs. 
For,  as  with  the  birthmark,  your  atmosphere  is  not 
always  in  perfect  harmony  even  with  yourself ;  and  so 
it  is  with  the  dog. 

This  law  of  marking  a  child  is  an  existing  truth; 
and,  as  there  never  was  an  effect  without  a  cause,  and 
as  neither  your  medicine  men,  your  physical  scien- 


(  190  ) 

tists,  nor  your  theologians  have  ever  yet  been  able  to 
advance  a  practical  solution  of  this  truth  in  a  com- 
mon-sense view,  we  offer  you  an  occult  solution,  and 
add  another  link  to  strengthen  the  chain  of  evolution 
and  the  atomic  law. 


(191  ) 


OHAPTEK  XXV. 

THE  keystone;  or^  a  peep  behind  the  veil  of  the 

MYSTIC  temple^  WHERE  THOUGHT  AND  REASON 
PRESIDE. 

In  which  many  of  the  mysterious  phenomena  of 
human  life  are  rationally  explained  that  have  here- 
tofore been  a  hard  nut  for  your  metaphysicians  to 
crack, 

(July  27,  1897.) 

You  have  been  taught  that  man  is  superior  to  the 
brute  on  account  of  his  power  to  reason.  Well,  let 
us  see  if  we  can  analyze  this  reasoning  faculty  of  man 
from  an  occult  point  of  view;  and  if  we  shall  make 
you  a  startling  assertion  under  this  caption,  we  hope 
you  will  survive  it. 

Man  does  not  derive  his  power  to  reason  from  the 
direct  working  of  his  brain;  but  the  brain  receives 
its  reason  from  the  spirit,  just  the  reverse  of  what  you 
have  been  taught,  and  this  is  a  parallel  case  with 
Galileo.  You  have  a  physical  feeling  in  your  head 
when  under  profound  study,  and  say  you  have  a  head- 
ache from  thinking.  This  is  not  the  fact.  You  feel 
it  because  the  spirit  is  projecting  organized  reason  or 
thought  on  the  brain  from  out  of  the  spirit  atmosphere 
at  a  time  when  your  physical  body  is  not  in  as  perfect 
harmony  with  your  spirit  as  it  ought  to  be. 


(  192  ) 

For  thousands  of  years  the  Greek  philosophers 
taught  that  the  sun  moved  around  the  earth  (and 
right  here  allow  us  to  say  to  you  that  our  old  Greek 
teachers  were,  in  many  respects,  your  superiors).  It 
fell,  however,  to  the  lot  of  that  obscure  monk,  Galileo, 
to  brave  the  intelligence  of  the  whole  world  and  first 
declare  the  reverse  order  of  things,  and  to  be  declared 
a  crank,  crazy,  heretic,  etc.  There  were  in  those  days 
many  astronomical  phenomena  that  our  wise  men 
could  not  account  for  (by  following  these  false  gods), 
and,  like  your  wise  men  of  to-day,  they  dodged  the 
question  by  making  poor  old  Dame  Nature  assume  the 
burden,  saying  that  the  mysteries  of  the  gods  were  not 
for  man  to  know.  Alas,  alas,  poor,  patient,  long- 
suffering  madam,  how  kind  and  considerate  you  are 
to  us  all !    Yet  how  little  are  you  understood ! 

The  various  cells  of  the  brain  receive  such  pro- 
gressed matter  as  may  be  impinged  upon  them  in  a 
simple  mechanical  manner.  They  refine  it  to  organ- 
ized Thought.  This  thought  is  then  advanced  into 
your  spirit  atmosphere,  and  is  there  stored  away  for 
future  use,  but  is  not  stored  in  the  brain  at  all,  as 
most  people  suppose.  The  brain  is  as  much  physical 
matter  as  the  nerves,  the  muscles,  the  bones,  etc.  You 
will  see  that  the  physical  structure  begins  with  coarse 
atoms,  such  as  the  bone ;  then  the  ligature,  which  is 
a  step  finer;  then  the  muscles,  then  the  nerves,  and 
then  the  brain.  All  of  these  are  but  primary  parts  of 
a  physical  object,  and  are  composed  of  the  various 
simple  substances  of  matter,  precisely  the  same  as  the 
apple,  and  are  but  atoms  on  their  journey  toward 
perfection. 


(  193  ) 

THE  BRAIN  THE  HIGHEST  PHYSICAL  MATTER. 

The  human  brain  is  the  highest  and  most  sensitive 
condition  to  which,  as  physical^  matter  can  attain. 
When  the  atom  has  reached  this  point  in  its  onward 
march,  physically  speaking,  it  can  go  no  farther.  But 
has  it  reached  perfection  at  this  point?  Certainly 
not.  Then,  what  becomes  of  it?  Why,  as  we  have 
already  shown  you,  it  here  takes  its  last  step  in  the 
ponderable  world  and  crosses  the  bridge  into  the  im- 
ponderable, and  becomes  your  spirit  atmosphere  in 
the  form  of  thought.  This  spirit  is  the  real  part  of 
you,  the  I  AM,  and  this  is  what  directs  all  of  your 
actions  as  a  reasoning  being.  This  atmosphere  or 
spirit  becomes  your  storehouse  in  which  you  keep  and 
record  the  experience  of  each  of  your  five  senses.  Here 
the  various  thoughts  are  brought  together  by  a  higher 
laAv  than  the  physical,  and  produce  reason.  (The 
healthy  manner  in  which  you  store  away  these  pro- 
gressed thoughts  in  this  atmosphere  is  what  con- 
stitutes your  mind  or  memory.  If  carelessly  stored 
it  produces  a  feeble  mind. ) 

Reason,  having  been  produced  from  out  this  store- 
house of  Memory^  causes  the  effect  which  produces 
Intelligence. 

The  gray  matter  of  the  brain  is  divided  into  many 
compartments.  The  duty  of  one  of  these  groups  is 
to  receive  the  impression  of  Reason  which  the  spirit 
projects  upon  it.  This  same  group  then  distributes 
this  reason,  intelligence,  etc.,  to  the  various  separate 
groups  of  the  physical  brain  that  govern  the  various 
functions  of  the  body.     (See  Chapter  XVII.) 


(  194  ) 
HOW  A  CHILD  IS  BORN   DEAF  AND  DUMB. 

To  illustrate  this,  we  will  take  the  organ  of  speech, 
and  say  that  if  an  expert  surgeon  were  to  separate 
the  nerve  that  leads  from  the  vocal  organ  to  that 
particular  group  of  the  brain  connected  with  this 
organ,  the  result  would  be  dumbness,  or  loss  of  the 
power  of  speech,  a  merely  mechanical  disarrangement 
of  the  machine.  In  like  manner,  were  you  to  separate 
the  auditory  nerve  from  its  group  of  cells,  the  result 
would  be  deafness.  In  this  manner  a  child  is  brought 
into  the  physical  world  deaf  and  dumb,  and  it  is 
brought  about  in  this  way.  The.  child's  skull  has  not, 
at  this  time,  completely  protected  the  brain  by  a  bony 
covering, — that  is,  the  skull  is  absent  on  the  top  of 
the  head.  Here  nature  has  provided  for  the  passage 
of  the  head  through  the  narrow,  hard,  bony  way  of 
the  pelvis,  by  allowing  the  child's  head  to  close  to- 
gether in  an  oblong  shape.  While  the  head  is  com- 
pressed at  this  passage,  those  groups  of  the  brain 
governing  the  vocal  organs  and  the  hearing  lie  side  by 
side  in  the  head  of  the  child.  If  the  head  of  the  child 
should  receive  too  much  pressure  by  a  wrong  presenta- 
tion or  some  slight  malformation,  or  from  numerous 
causes  liable  to  occur,  there  would  then  arise  grave 
danger  of  rupturing  the  nerves  of  these  organs.  The 
result  would  be  that  the  child  is  born  permanently 
deaf  and  dumb. 

Here  you  will  see  that  the  spirit,  while  it  is  perfect- 
ly able  to  communicate  with  that  group  of  the  brain 
whose  duty  it  is  to  receive  the  organized  Thought  or 
reason  and  distribute  the  same  to  the  various  other 


(  195  ) 

groups  having  jurisdiction  over  the  various  physical 
functions  of  the  body,  finds  the  bridge  spanning  the 
gulf  between  the  ponderable  and  imponderable  has 
been  destroyed,  and  it  is  unable  to  use  the  vocal 
organs  by  its  inability  to  reflect  on  them;  yet  these 
organs  will  be  found,  upon  careful  examination,  to  be 
in  a  perfect  state  of  formation  in  every  other  respect, 
as  is  proven  by  their  use  of  the  slate  and  pencil,  etc. 
Again,  we  will  call  your  attention  to  another  case : 
We  will  suppose  a  man  is  talking  to  a  friend  on  the 
last  day  of  December  in  regard  to  a  dinner  to  be  given 
on  New  Year's  day.  While  conversing  with  this  friend 
something  hits  him  on  the  head  and  depresses  the 
skull  at  a  certain  spot.  He  is  picked  up  unconscious. 
In  a  few  days  he  apparently  recovers  his  health,  but  it 
is  found  that  he  has  lost  his  memory  and  power  to 
reason,  and  in  this  state  he  continues  for  months.  In 
every  other  respect  he  is  perfectly  healthy.  You 
finally  take  him  to  the  surgeon,  who  performs  an 
operation  called  trepanning ;  in  a  few  minutes  after- 
wards he  comes  to  himself  and  immediately  continues 
the  conversation  with  his  friend  about  the  New  Year's 
dinner,  as  tliough  nothing  had  occurred.  Here  is  a 
complete  void  in  his  memory,  and  it  is  accounted  for 
by  the  same  fundamental  cause.  The  bone,  by  pressing 
on  that  group  of  the  brain  whose  duty  it  is  to  receive 
and  classify  the  atoms  of  thought  and  project  them  on 
the  spirit  atmosphere,  has  only  obstructed  the  bridge 
for  the  time  and  shut  off  communication  between  the 
spirit  and  the  physical  or  the  ponderable  and  the  im- 
ponderable. 


(196) 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

REASON  AND  INTELLIGENCE   (CONTINUED). 
AS  A  MAN  THINKS^  SO   HE  IS. 

The  active  operation  and  application  of  the  so- 
called  five  senses,  by  their  action  through  the  brain, 
produces  each  a  single  thought  at  a  time,  which  is 
refined  matter,  and,  as  matter,  it  occupies  space.  By 
a.  constant  accumulation  of  thought  you  produce 
reason:  by  the  exercise  of  reason  you  develop  intelli- 
gence. We  will  illustrate  this  as  follows:  take  a 
child  one  year  old.  If  it  had  all  the  organs  of  the 
brain  ready  developed  at  its  birth  and  your  power 
to  reason  was  derived  from  the  physical  or  mechanical 
w  orking  of  the  gray  matter,  then  why  does  the  child 
not  display  its  reasoning  faculties,  if  only  in  a  small 
way?  Stand  this  child  by  the  side  of  a  railroad  track 
and  let  it  witness  a  fearful  collision  where  death  and 
destruction  reign  supreme.  Does  the  child  display 
any  emotion  or  reason,  even  in  the  slightest  degree? 
Not  at  all.  Then  it  is  in  order  for  us  to  ask,  Why  not? 
To  build  an  edifice  you  must  lay  the  first  brick.  Well, 
we  have  laid  that  brick;  but,  surely,  that  is  not  an 
edifice?  Nor  could  you  have  erected  an  edifice  with 
the  first,  second,  or  third  brick  only. 

The  child  has  got  to  build  its  store-house  or  spirit 
out  of  the  matter  furnished  it  by  the  five  slaves  of  its 


(  197  ) 

physical  body,  viz. :  the  nerves  of  sense.  Its  little  eye 
sees  the  wreck  and  thereby  lays  the  first  brick,  and 
from  this  time  on  it  is  constantly  engaged  in  furnish- 
ing material  out  of  which,  as  the  edifice  takes  form 
in  space,  are  stored  the  results  of  its  earth  experience. 
This  experience,  refined  matter  or  thought,  is  the  real 
part  of  you,  and  is  the  part  that  exists  and  continues 
on  and  on,  still  reaching  out  for  perfection,  after  the 
so-called  death  of  the  physical  body. 

If  the  child  is  so  situated  as  to  be  constantly  sur- 
rounded by  evil,  low,  brutish  companions,  and  its 
feeble  nerves  are  compelled  to  receive  nothing  but  the 
vile  and  polluted  atoms  of  matter  or  material,  out  of 
which  it  is  again  compelled  to  erect  its  store-house, 
would  you,  my  friend,  condemn  the  child  for  not  being 
able  to  erect  a  more  beautiful  edifice? 

The  noblest  attribute  of  man  is  to  be  charitable  in 
his  thoughts  of  others;  for  as  a  man  thinks,  so  he 
is,  and  of  such  materials  as  you  have  at  hand  do  you 
erect  your  spirit. 

THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE. 

When  you  reflect  that  the  spirit  is  the  keeper  of 
your  knowledge  and  reason,  and  simply  projects  it  on 
your  brain,  and  your  vocal  organs  are  merely  the 
means  by  which  your  spirit  communicates  with  your 
physical  body,  you  will  then  understand,  or,  we  hope, 
comprehend,  how  it  is  possible  for  thought  transfer- 
ence, mind-reading,  psychomancy,  impressional  writ- 
ing, etc.  Other  freed  spirits  can  come  in 
communication  with  your  spirit ;  your  spirit  reflects 
the  same  on  your  brain ;  your  brain  again  reflects  on 
your  physical  organs. 


(198  ) 


CONSCIOUSNESS. 


As  we  have  already  stated,  it  is  not  the  part  of  a 
philosopher  to  assume  the  negative  or  offer  proofs  of 
the  non-existence  of  every  fad  and  fallacy  that  may 
for  the  moment  occupy  the  mind  of  the  lay  world,  yet 
tliere  are  exceptional  cases  wherein  he  may  be  reason- 
ably justified  in  departing  from  this  rule,  and  par- 
ticularly so  where  the  question  under  consideration 
involves  new  issues,  new  departures,  and  radically 
revolutionary  views  of  old,  accepted  theories  when 
apparently  in  harmony  with  orthodox  science.  And 
while  we  would  have  the  student  distinctly  under- 
stand that  we  entertain  the  highest  respect  for  the 
profound  wisdom  of  such  deep  thinkers  as  Sir  Wil- 
liam Hamilton,  Immanuel  Kant,  Editor  Stead,  and 
other  well-known  advocates  of  the  existence  of  a  sub- 
jective consciousness,  subliminal  self,  etc.,  yet  until 
they  can  offer  more  substantial  evidence  than  mere 
opinion,  we  shall  insist  that  others  who  may  differ 
^'ith  them  have  a  perfect  right  to  deny  the  existence 
of  a  subjective  consciousness,  subjective  mind,  sub- 
jective memory,  subjective  thought,  subjective  will, 
subjective  force,  subjective  self,  or  subjective  sub- 
stance, until  the  advocates  of  these  fallacies  produce 
such  tangible  evidence  as  shall  be,  of  itself,  of  so  plain, 
practical,  and  reasonable  a  nature  as  will  satisfy  the 
ordinary  intelligence  by  a  description  of  what  it  is 
composed  of,  from  whence  it  came,  how  it  came  to 
come,  what  known  law  necessitated  its  birth,  what 
becomes  of  it  after  it  has  outlived  its  usefulness,  etc. 

I  am  immediately  conscious  of  being  touched — i.  a. 


(  199  ) 

the  nerve  of  feeling  is  being  moved — whereby  I  think 
a  thought:    touched, 

I  recognize  immediately  through  and  by  means  of 
this  nerve  vibrating  some  thing  in  motion;  in  other 
^^  ords,  I,  for  the  first  instant,  become  conscious  of  the 
fact. 

One  minute  after  the  act,  there  are  those  who  would 
have  us  believe  that,  in  some  incomprehensible  man- 
ner, the  act  is  changed  to  subjective  consciousness, 
while  we  shall  contend  it  is  simply  an  act  of  memory. 

What  is  that  which  we  recognize  as  conscious,  and 
how  do  you  recognize  it?  Is  it  not  that  something 
(an  entity)  comes  in  contact  with  one  of  the  nerves 
of  sense,  by  vibration,  and  is  precipitated  on  to  that 
particular  group  of  the  brain,  to  be  there  converted 
into  human  thought, — i.  e.  cognition, — to  be  again  ad- 
vanced into  your  spirit  atmosphere  or  I  AM  as 
crystallized  thought? 

Does  the  spirit,  or  I  AM,  sleep  when  the  physical 
or  gray  matter  of  the  brain  sleeps?  Certainly  not. 
The  spirit,  not  being  physical,  does  not  require  a  rest 
for  recuperation.  As  in  dreaming,  here  you  will  per- 
ceive that  it  is  the  spbnt,  and  not  S2«&-conscience,  that 
is  in  full  vigor,  while  the  I  AM,  or  spirit  self,  is  in 
close  communion  with  the  physical  self,  or  brain. 

The  gray  physical  matter  of  your  animal  self  re- 
quires a  rest  for  recuperation,  and  while  at  rest 
(recognized  by  you  as  sleep),  the  spirit  is  unable  to 
act  or  reflect  back  on  the  various  functions  of  the 
brain  in  a  systematical  manner  or  in  regular  detailed 
order.  This  you  call  dreaming ;  but  upon  awakening, 
to  your  mind  or  memory  that  which  you  dreamed  is 


(  200  ) 

in  a  chaotic  condition — faulty,  not  systematized.  This 
is  upon  the  same  principle  as  the  so-called  sundog,  or 
secondary  rainbow,  and,  to  some  extent,  similar  to  an 
echo. 

At  other  times  all  of  the  brain  functions  are  not 
asleep  or  at  rest.  Perhaps  it  might  be  the  sense  of 
smell,  taste,  or  hearing.  Then,  in  that  case,  that  part 
of  the  dream  or  reflection  from  your  spirit  would  be 
more  fully  recognized  upon  awakening  than  some 
other  parts  of  your  dream. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  IMr.  Stead  is  in  error  in  his 
hasty  conclusions  as  regards  the  existence  of  a  siih- 
conscience  or  si^&-liminal  self.  Like  all  amateur  in- 
vestigators, the  moment  that  he  is  convinced  as  to  the 
truth  of  the  phenomenon  of  automatic  writing 
through  his  own  forces,  he  jumps  to  the  opinion  that 
he  knows  it  all,  notwithstanding  thousands  of  others 
who  have  produced  the  same  phenomenon  declare  him 
to  be  wrong. 

However,  it  is  not  so  very  astonishing  that  so-  care- 
ful a  writer  as  Editor  Stead,  after  becoming  absolute- 
ly convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  phenomenon  of  auto- 
matic writing,  in  rebounding  from  the  teachings  of  his 
English  friend,  Newton,  that  for  each  and  every  force 
there  is  a  counter  force :  "  if  in  seeking  a  place  to  re- 
bound against,  he  should  find  it  nil,  but  be  kept  going 
until  he  flopped  clear  over  into  the  other  extreme. 

Carefully,  friend  Stead,  and  remember  there  are 
others :  Cookes,  Wallis,  Flammarion.  It  went  much 
against  the  grain  of  these  distinguished  gentlemen  to 
doubt  the  infallibility  of  Newton's  law  of  force. 
Hence  their  endeavor  to  segregate  force  physical  from 
force  psychical. 


(  201  ) 

For  if  conscience  of  itself  is  not  an  entity ^  but  the 
effect  or  expression  of  some  thing  or  entity  that  has 
left  its  mark  or  effect  on  one  of  the  various  groups 
of  the  brain  by  vibration  to  be  crystallized  into  human 
thought,  then  we  can  only  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
that  Avhich  has  no  actual  existence  of  itself  could  not 
produce  a  sub  or  substitute.  For  instance:  You  sud- 
denly open  your  eyes ;  in  front  of  you  is  an  apple ;  the 
rays  of  light  are  first  reflected  from  the  apple  onto  the 
optic  nerve  before  you  can  be  conscious  of  the  object. 

You  are  only  immediately  conscious  of  a  body  or 
object  when  some  thing  first  moves  the  particular 
nerve  of  sense  applicable  to  the  object.  You  are  only 
conscious  of  sound  after  the  auditory  nerve  has  been 
moved:  and  the  same  with  smell,  taste,  and  touch. 

What  physical  thing  moved  the  physical  nerve  to 
produce  the  effect  called  cognition,  recognition,  or 
thought?  Is  not  this  the  act  of  knowing,  of  becoming 
immediately  conscious  of  the  presence  of  force?  And, 
if  so,  what  is  it  that  moves  or  is  moving  from  the 
object  toivards  the  eye  in  that  fraction  of  a  second  just 
before  it  comes  in  contact  with  the  optic  nerve?  For 
you  will  admit  that  the  ray  of  light  must  first  come 
in  contact  with  the  object  to  be  then  reflected  or  re- 
bound onto  the  eye. 

Now,  if  this  is  the  birth  of  consciousness,  or  the  act 
of  becoming  conscious,  then  you  will  perceive  that 
consciousness  is  only  an  effect  of  some  definite  exist- 
ing thing  or  entity  that  occupies  its  proportional 
share  of  space  as  such.  And,  if  this  be  a  fact,  how  can 
it  produce  a  s7/&-conscious,  or  sub-limmal  self? 
Then,  is  this  that  you  call  sub  or  subjective  conscience 


(  202  ) 

any  thing  other  than  memory,  or  subliminal  self  any 
thing  other  than  spirit?  f'or  upon  the  hypothesis  of 
spirit  much  of  that  which  has  heretofore  appeared  to 
many  as  at  least  doubtful  in  your  metaphysics  can  be 
made  comprehensible  to  the  average  common  sense  of 
to-day. 

In  the  act  of  becoming  conscious  if  more  vibrations 
are  precipitated  on  to  the  cell  of  gray  matter  than  it 
can  receive  in  regular  order,  the  overplus  is  thrown 
on  to  the  next  most  sensitive  body  that  can  receive  it ; 
which  sometimes  happens  to  be  the  FOETUS ;  hence 
a  birthmark  is  produced  as  described  in  Chapter 
XXIV,  or  you  become  frightened,  shocked,  or  startled. 
This  is  because  the  instantaneous  act  of  cognition  has 
not  had  time  to  be  impinged  onto  the  entire  brain, 
that  it  may  be  advanced  into  recognition,  or  a  fully 
crystallized  thought. 

And  now,  my  dear  friend,  we  are  aware  that  many 
enlightened  scholars  will  be  inclined  to  deny  this 
heterodoxical  assertion,  perhaps  yourself  included; 
but  before  you  arrive  at  a  dogmatic  decision,  allow  us 
to  ask.  Has  it  not  occurred  to  you  during  some  time 
in  your  life,  if  you  are  over  the  age  of  twenty,  that, 
while  in  company  with  some  friend,  your  conversation 
becomes  slack,  when  just  at  the  very  minute  you  were 
going  to  speak  on  some  entirely  different  subject,  your 
companion  speaks  on  the  same  subject, — to  use  a  com- 
mon expression,  takes  the  very  words  out  of  your 
mouth?  Here  you  will  see  that  your  spirit  of  impon- 
derable matter  can  and  does  come  into  contact  with  a 
similar  substance  existing  in  the  spirit  atmosphere. 
Your  friend's  spirit  thought  also  impinges  on  your 


(  203  ) 

spirit  thought,  and  your  thought  is  again  thrown  on 
your  physical  organs,  and  they  obey. 

In  this  same  manner  does  the  operator  control  his 
hj^pnotic  subject.  He  does  not  control  the  subject's 
physical  body,  but  his  spirit,  and  this  spirit  controls 
its  own  body. 

HYPNOTIC  SUBJECTS. 

By  close  observation  you  will  find  that  all  of  those 
that  are  called  hypnotic  subjects  are  of  a  weak  and 
vacillating  nature,  and  are  of  that  class  of  people  who 
go  through  life  without  much  personal  ambition,  but 
are  inclined  to  lean  on  some  one  else,  or  are  always 
serving  in  a  fiduciary  capacity.  But  such  subjects 
are  not  to  blame  for  this  condition.  The  facts  are 
their  spirit  and  body  are  held  together  by  a  very  weak 
tie  of  sympathy,  which  leaves  their  spirit  at  the  mercy 
of  every  wandering  spirit  of  stronger  magnetism. 
Those  people  who  would  be  inclined  to  deny  or  doubt 
the  above  are  the  very  ones  to  insist  that  there  never 
was  an  effect  without  a  cause.  Well,  here  is  an  un- 
deniable effect.  Before  you  become  dogmatic  please 
explain  this  phenomenon  in  a  more  rational  manner 
than  we  have  attempted  to  do.  Certainly  you  cannot 
assert  that  the  gray  matter  of  your  brain  came  into 
physical  contact  with  the  gray  matter  of  your  friend's 
brain.  And  yet  there  was  a  transference  of  what,  if 
not  matter?  And  if  matter,  in  what  condition  and 
position  was  it  at  the  moment  previous  to  its  motion 
from  your  friend's  brain  to  your  brain,  or  vice  versa? 

While  we  have  endeavored  to  refrain  as  much  as 
possible  from  repeating,  yet  a  metaphysical  work  such 


(  204  ) 

as  we  have  here  undertaken,  embracing  such  radically 
heterodoxical  views,  would  seem  to  compel  us  some- 
times to  repeat  or  run  down  the  line  of  facts.  There- 
fore the  color — we  will  say  blue — is  received  on  one 
brain-cell  only  which  projects  one  thought,  viz. :  blue. 
The  violin-string  sends  the  sound  wave  E,  and  it  is  re- 
ceived on  another  single  cell  which  projects  the  single 
thought  of  the  vibration  or  music  of  E.  So  it  is  for 
every  kind  of  vibration ;  there  is  in  the  brain  a  special 
cell  to  receive  it  and  refine  it  into  a  single  thought  of 
imponderable  matter. 

Spirit,  Ego,  or  the  I  AM,  are  one  and  the  same  thing 
and  you  recognize  it  as  the  noiv  or  immediate  present ; 
that  which  is  passed,  whether  one  moment  or  one  year 
ago,  is  memory,  and  could  not  come  under  any  one 
of  the  above  appellations. 

Now,  what  is  mind,  or  memory,  but  accumulated 
thoughts,  systematized  by  classification,  and  laid 
away  in  that  which  constitutes  memory's  store- 
house, as  the  product  of  the  labor  of  your  five  physical 
senses  and  recognized  only  as  reason  and  intelligence. 

Here  you  perceive  that  reason  and  intelligence  are 
but  an  expression  or  effect,  and  not  an  entity  or  a 
thing  occupying  space,  such  as  spirit,  or  Ego.  For 
instance,  you  wish  to  call  to  your  mind,  or  memory, 
some  past  event  or  thought,  and  memory  for  the 
moment  lags,  when  suddenly  you  exclaim,  "Ah !  I  have 
it ! "  Now,  until  you  had  possession  of  it,  it  was  no 
part  of  the  Ego,  or  self,  as  a  thing  of  knowledge. 

This  same  analysis  applies  to  that  which  you  call 
life.  Life  is  not  a  thing  that  occupies  space  as  an 
entity,  but  is  merely  an  expression  or  the  effect  of  the 


(  205  ) 

union  of  three  distinet  entities  that  occupy  space  as 
such,  namely:  Thought,  Force,  and  Substance;  and 
while  the  three  are  inseparable,  so  far  as  known,  yet 
they  are  three  distinct  essences.  For  you  cannot  assert 
that  thought  is  force  or  that  force  is  substance ;  yet 
thought  and  force  exist  as  something  other  than  suh- 
stance y  for  as  we  can  only  conceive  of  an  atom  as  the 
last  division  of  substance  or  as  a  point  in  space,  then 
the  other  two  would  have  to  exist  as  something  other 
than  (for  the  sake  of  clearer  comprehension,  w^e  will 
say)  the  atom  of  the  substance  of  matter.  Otherwise 
we  would  have  three  atoms  as  the  last  division,  which 
would  leave  our  philosophy  in  a  paradoxical  condi- 
tion. 

YOUR  THOUGHTS  ABE  ON  THE  OUTSIDE  OF  YOUR  BRAIN. 

Where  we  wish  to  be  clearly  understood  as  radically 
departing  from  the  old  Lady  Orthodox  is,  that  all  of 
your  thoughts,  instead  of  their  being  stored  in  your 
brain,  and  there,  by  some  incomprehensible  hocus- 
pocus,  evolve  reason,  are  located  on  the  outside  of 
your  brain,  in  the  form  of  a  spirit  atmosphere,  which 
is  still  matter,  but  in  an  imponderable  condition ;  that 
these  single  thoughts  also,  by  the  same  law  of  sympa- 
thetic attraction  that  governs  the  physical,  do  associ- 
ate together  and  produce  harmonious  music,  reason, 
intelligence,  etc.,  according  to  the  state  of  harmony 
existing  at  the  time  between  your  physical  body  and 
your  spirit.  Thus  it  is  we  explain  to  you  why  you 
seem  to  more  quickly  and  clearly  gather  your  thoughts 
together  or  why  you  can  solve  a  problem  more  readily 
at  one  time  than  at  another. 


(  206  ) 

The  brain-cells  are  subject  to  physical  disarrange-" 
me'nt,  the  same  as  any  other  part  of  your  body,  which 
induces  want  of  harmony ;  and  this  is  the  reason  that 
a  clairvoyant  or  clairaudiant  cannot  at  all  times  re- 
ceive the  impressions  that  a  controlling  spirit  wishes 
to  reflect  on  the  brain  of  their  subject.  Or,  in  other 
words,  a  controlling  spirit  hypnotizes  your  spirit,  and 
causes  your  spirit,  by  suggestion,  to  see,  hear,  smell, 
etc.  Your  spirit  reflects  this  onto  the  different  groups 
of  your  physical  brain,  and  you  repeat  it  to  the  sitter 
who  is  seeking  information.  In  this  case,  as  a  rule, 
the  controlling  spirits  find  that  they  can  secure  the 
best  results  by  carrying  the  hypnotic  state  to  what  you 
understand  as  the  trance  condition,  or,  it  may  be,  par- 
tial trance.  There  are  also  cases  where  the  control- 
ling spirit  can  so  completely  hypnotize  your  spirit  as 
to  amount  to  obsession,  which  may  continue  for  years. 

A  single  brain  cell  is  the  size  of  a  molecule,  and  re- 
ceives but  a  single  atom  at  a  time,  but  can  do  its  work 
with  great  rapidity. 

In  corroboration  of  the  real  self,  or  I  AM,  being 
on  the  outside  of  the  physical  body,  and  that  this  real 
self  is  recognized  by  you  as  your  tJiought^  we  will  cite 
any  case  of  obsession  where  the  person  obsessed  ap- 
pears to  lo^e  all  previous  consciousness  or  thought  of 
their  former  self,  friends,  or  home,  and  becomes  the 
actual  representative  of  the  one  dead,  so-called. 

The  obsessed  in  this  case  had  no  knowledge  of  the 
previous  existence  of  the  dead  one;  yet  he,  or  she, 
while  under  obsession,  clearly  proves  that  he,  or  she, 
is  in  possession  of  all  the  former  thouphts  of  the  other, 
and  remembers  nothing  of  his,  or  her,  own  previous 


(  207  ) 

self.     Here  the  physical  body  completely  ignores  its 
former  owner  and  obeys  some  one  else. 

This  fact  would  appear  to  us  to  be  unquestionable 
evidence  in  support  of  the  truth  that  you  do  not  think 
with  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain,  nor  that  the  brain 
is  the  seat  of  reason,  or  intelligence ;  for  in  this  case 
you  establish  one  fact  beyond  a  question  of  a  doubt, — 
namely,  John  Jones,  being  dead  (so-called)  and  cre- 
mated years  ago,  takes  possession  of  the  physical  body 
of  Sam  Lee  for  months  at  a  time,  and  in  doing  so 
appears  to  cause  the  real  I  AM,  or  spirit  atmosphere, 
of  Sam  Lee  to  relinquish  or  cease  to  control  its  own 
body. 

Now,  we  are  (by  this  fact  being  established)  com- 
pelled to  inquire  what  becomes  of  the  I  AM,  spirit,  or 
conscience  of  Sam  Lee  while  the  INDIVIDUALITY 
or  spirit  intelligence  of  John  Jones  (who  has  no  physi- 
cal body  of  his  own)  is  occupying  it.  You  cannot 
deny  that  the  same  gray  matter  or  hrain  is  still 
occupying  the  same  skull  it  always  occupied,  nor  can 
you  claim  that  the  spirit  or  intelligence  of  Sam  Lee 
has  become  annihilated,  for  it  proves  that  it  is  yet 
around  somewhere  during  the  period  of  obsession  by 
returning  to  and  again  assuming  jurisdiction  over  its 
own  body. 

We  will  explain  it  in  this  way :  The  spirit  of  John 
Jones,  being  more  positive  than  Sam  Lee's  spirit,  in 
drifting  around,  we  may  say,  in  the  spirit  zone,  and 
not  realizing  Ihat  he  has  made  the  change  called 
death,  comes  in  contact  with  a  mortal  spirit's  atmos- 
phere that  at  the  time  is  in  almost  complete  harmony 
with  himself. 


(  208  ) 

Here  John  Jones,  the  real  or  disembodied  spirit,  by 
coming  into  such  an  atmosphere,  by  the  law  of  affinity 
is  seized  with  an  intense  desire  to  return  to  his  own 
home;  this  intensity  of  thought  on  his  part  simply 
hypnotizes  Smii  Lee's  spirit  in  precisely  the  same  man- 
ner as  a  physical  hypnotist  controls  his  subject.  This 
would  cause  it  to  appear  that  the  physical  brain  was 
nothing  more  than  one  of  the  functional  parts  of  the 
human  body,  by  means  of  which  the  real  I  AM,  or 
spirit,  of  you  projects  its  thoughts  or  intelligence  onto 
and  controls  or  directs  the  various  other  functions  of 
the  physical  structure;  in  other  words,  the  'brain  is 
functional  to  all  of  the  other  bodily  functions. 

By  this  explanation  you  will  perceive  that  the 
spirit,  or  I  AM,  of  a  physical  body  is  controlled  or 
hypnotized  by  a  disembodied  spirit,  while  in  the  other 
case  the  spirit,  or  I  AM,  of  one  mortal  hypnotizes  the 
spirit  of  the  w^eaker  mortal. 

This  is  additional  evidence  that  there  is  no  gulf 
separating  the  physical  from  the  occult  world  any 
more  than  that  which  separates  the  infant  from  the 
sere  and  yellow  leaf  or  the  past  from  the  now  or 
future ;  for  from  the  time  the  atom  of  comprehension 
first  presents  itself  for  your  consideration,  't  is  one  un- 
broken journey,  on  and  on,  into  the  unsolvable 
infinite. 

Since  that  most  wonderful  of  men,  Charles  Darwin, 
has  clothed  your  old  philosophy  with  so  brilliant  a 
garment,  in  the  form  of  Evolution,  opening  wide  the 
gate  for  free  investigation,  thereby  relegating  your 
priests  to  their  antediluvian  caves  and  cloisters,  what 
a  glorious  smile  now  beams  forth  from  the  features  of 


(  209  ) 

Dame  Nature!  The  tail  end  of  the  Dark  Ages  is 
rapidly  passing  from  off  the  scene !  Behold  the  light ! 
The  day  is  breaking!  Farewell,  Orthodoxy, — and 
if  forever,  then  forever,  farewell !  The  world  has  out- 
grown your  usefulness. 

Ketrospection  teaches  us  that  as  the  Greek  myth- 
ology evolved  out  of  paganism,  so  the  inexorable  law 
of  evolution  in  time  required  another  advance  from 
mythology  into  Christianity.  He  were  a  poor  pro- 
phet indeed  that  at  this,  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth 
century,  should  fail  to  note  the  rapid  crumbling  of 
the  foundation  of  Christianity  as  it  disintegrates,  and 
thereby  paves  the  way  for  yet  another  change  of  rea- 
son and  common  sense  over  gag-law  and  blind  fanat- 
icism supported  by  the  reasoning  of  a  free  people,  a 
free  press  and  a  free  country. 

For,  America,  it  is  in  thee 

That  our  hope  shall  ever  be, — 
From  ocean  to  ocean  and  o'er  the  sea* 

The  sponsor  of  immortality !  t 

WHAT   IS   INTELLIGENCE? 

Intelligence  has  no  existence  as  a  thing.  Like  time, 
it  is  merely  a  gauge  or  rule,  or,  better  yet,  a  word 
adopted  by  man  to  designate  the  fact  that  John  Doe, 
Solomon,  a  little  child,  the  horse,  elephant,  monkey, 
etc.,  have  the  power  within  them  to  think  and  reason, 

*The  Philippine  Islands. 

fit  was  the  Hydeville  rappings  that  gave  birth  to  modern 
spiritualism,  startled  the  world,  revolutionized  your  science,  your 
philosophy  and  your  religion;  for  all  must  be  reconstructed  to 
rationally  account  for  these  phenomena.  Shades  of  Newton,  Huxley, 
and  Max  Muller,  where  are  ye? — C.  H.  F. 


(  210  ) 

You  will  frequently  hear  the  expression  used  in  this 
way :  "  Agassiz  was  a  very  intellectual  man ;  "  ''  That 
is  a  very  intelligent  horse."  But  does  the  word  con- 
vey any  definite  fact?  Is  it  any  evidence  that  some 
particular  definable  thing  has  been  established? 

By  a  collection  of  thoughts,  you  produce  reason, 
and  in  no  other  way  is  reason  produced.  This  is 
called  mind  in  some  cases,  and  in  others  intelligence. 
Intelligence  it  unquestionably  is,  but  it  is  not  mind ; 
for  when  you  come  to  analyze  the  word,  you  will  per- 
ceive that  if  such  a  thing  as  mind  had  a  special  exis- 
tence, it  could  only  be  in  the  form  of  memory. 

How  frequently  you  hear  the  expression,  "  I  have  a 
poor  memory,"  when  of  a  truth  there  is  no  such  a 
thing  as  a  poor  memory.  One  must  either  remember 
or  not  remember,  he  can  not  half  or  quarter  remember 
the  name  of  John  or  Smith. 

Not  wishing  to  prolong  these  parenthetical  re- 
marks, we  will  merely  say  that,  as  we  have  likened 
your  spirit  atmosphere  to  a  storehouse  in  which  you 
stored  the  goods  gathered  on  your  journey,  just  so 
does  mind  represent  the  order  in  which  you  have 
stored  said  goods.  If  you  have  been  careless  in  the 
manner  of  your  storage,  when  you  want  some  one 
particular  thought,  you  realize  the  chaotic  condition 
of  your  mind  store-shelving,  or  memory,  and,  as  the 
power  to  think  and  reason  begins  with  the  atom  and 
follows  it  through  all  of  its  various  changes  from  the 
least  to  the  infinite  whole,  you  will  perceive  that  it  is 
impossible  for  man  to  establish  a  line  of  demarcation 
where  or  at  what  particular  point  the  reason  of  the 
monad  changes  into  the  intelligence  of  a  Solomon  or 


(211) 

a  college  professor.  Hence  all  men  are  feeble-minded 
if  the  term  mind  represents  either  reason  or  intelli- 
gence. 

We  deny  that  man  is  superior  to  the  brute  because 
he  has  the  power  to  reason, — at  least  until  you  can 
demonstrate  as  a  fact  that  man  derives  his  reasoning 
faculties  from  some  other  source  than  thought,  which, 
in  turn,  was  conceived  by  an  application  of  the  senses, 
all  of  which  the  brute  possesses.  And  as  you  cannot 
qualify  as  to  the  exact  number  of  thoughts  requisite 
to  produce  reason,  or  define  them  by  a  standard  qual- 
ity, either  with  a  two-foot  rule,  a  quart  measure,  or  a 
pair  of  scales,  then  you  have  no  authority  to  claim  a 
superiority  to  the  brute  because  you  have  the  power 
to  reason;  for  does  not  the  brute  possess  the  same 
faculty? 

That  man  may  have  a  finer  quality  and  greater 
variety  of  thought,  we  do  not  wish  to  dispute;  and 
now,  my  friend,  as  the  title  to  this  volume  would  im- 
ply, our  object  in  writing  it  was  to  try  and  show  you 
that  there  practically  was  no  gulf  that  made  Uvo  sepa- 
rate conditions  or  states  of  existence  any  more  than 
there  was  a  gulf  separating  the  embryo  from  the  full- 
grown  man. 

As  we  have  before  stated,  there  are  no  two  atoms 
alike.  Then,  no  two  organisms  are  alike;  and  that 
you  may  properly  digest  this  chapter,  you  must  begin 
again  at  the  very  essence — i.  e.  when  two  atoms  come 
together  there  we  have  an  organism ;  and  will  call  it 
John;  two  other  atoms  come  together  near  by  it  as 
another  organism,  which  we  will  call  Dick.  Now, 
you  will  readily  understand  that,  as  no  two  atoms  are 


(  212  ) 

alike,  then  it  will  be  evident  that  John  and  Dick  are 
not  alike.  Eemember,  it  matters  not  how  insignifi- 
cant the  difference  may  be  there  is  a  difference. 

As  we  have  had  our  jokes  with  Mr.  Huxley's  proto- 
plasm, or  cell,  we  will  now  explain  to  you  that  the 
cells  that  constitute  the  human  brain  represent  the 
highest  physical  matter  that  the  earth  can  produce; 
therefore,  these  cells  are  far  more  sensitively  attuned 
than  any  other  earth  matter,  not  excepting  the  brute ; 
hence,  they  are  capable  of  receiving  a  greater  variety, 
both  in  quantity  and  quality,  of  vibration,  and,  there- 
fore, produce  a  finer  variety  of  thoughts  or  reason; 
and  as  no  two  organisms  are  alike,  either  in  man  or 
brute,  where  will  you  definitely  fix  your  line  of  what 
constitutes  the  point  of  difference  between  inferiority 
and  superiority,  or  how  far  wrong  was  the  Indian 
when  he  declared  that  there  was  no  bad  whiskey ;  that 
all  whiskey  was  good,  only  some  was  better  than 
others? 

Take  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species,  is  it  possible  for 
man  to  tell  or  realize  where  it  began  or  where  it  will 
stop  in  variation?  Can  man  realize  the  amount  of 
space  an  infinite  atom  occupies  as  a  so-called  begin- 
ning, or  the  size  of  all  infinite  space? 

Is  there  a  definite  gulf  between  these  extremes? 
Does  not  all  that  man  has  any  knowledge  of  start  out 
of  the  incomprehensible  and  pass  slowly  before  his 
senses  into  the  incomprehensible  without  a  percep- 
tible break?  Then,  after  all,  does  not  your  boasted 
superiority  consist  in  the  rational  manner  in  which 
you  apply  the  human  senses  for  the  purpose  of  obser- 
vation, thereby  generating  thought  and  reason ;   and 


(213) 

if  you  fail  to  apply  them,  to  what  extent  are  you 
superior  to  the  brute? 

Is  the  physical  life  of  man  the  end  of  evolution,  or 
the  spirit  the  end,  or  the  soul  the  end?  Who  will  say? 
We  feel  inclined  to  acknowledge,  like  friend  David- 
son, that  there  are  some  things  which  are  inscrutable; 
for  certainly  out  of  the  inscrutable  we  came  _and  into 
the  inscrutable  we  must  pass. 


(  214  ) 


CHAPTEE  XXVII. 

SPIRIT  DOUBLE. 

(August  2,  1897.) 

As,  from  the  beginning  of  this  work,  it  was  our 
intention  to  gradually  instruct  the  neophyte  in  the 
primary  degrees  of  the  mystic  temple  by  introducing 
aflid  instructing  you  in  the  use  of  the  various  articles 
found  in  each  particular  chamber  of  the  temple,  and 
thereby  to  gradually  and  systematically  reveal  to  you, 
as  your  mind  unfolded,  the  use  of  these  articles,  we 
now  feel  justified  in  introducing  you  into  yet  another 
chamber  for  your  consideration,  Avhich  we  will  call 
the  Double  or  the  appearance  of  one  who  has  not  left 
the  physical  body.  In  order  to  make  our  explanation 
more  clearly  understood,  we  will  allow  our  amanuen- 
sis to  state  a  case  of  his  own  experience. 

I  was  having  a  private  materializing  seance  with 
Mr.  C.  V.  Miller  about  three  o'clock  p.  M.^  when  two 
forms  came  out  of  the  cabinet  and  gave  the  names  of 
Jane  Schritze  and  Frank  Barns,  the  names  of  two  of 
my  sisters,  aged  about  sixty-four  and  seventy  years. 
I  had  not  heard  from  home  (the  State  of  Delaware) 
for  a  number  of  years,  and  did  not  know  whether  they 
were  living  or  dead,  and  was  not  thinking  of  them 
at  the  time.     I  asked  them  if  they  had  passed  over. 


(215  ) 

and  they  answered  me  yes.  There  was  no  other  con- 
versation passed  between  us,  and  they  retired.  Three 
or  four  days  afterward,  my  oldest  sister,  Ruth,  who  I 
knew  had  passed  over  some  thirty  years  before,  came 
to  me  in  a  seance  at  the  same  place.  I  asked  her  if 
Jane  and  Frank  were  over  on  her  side,  and  she  an- 
swered no,  which  was  the  truth.  I  then  asked  her  who 
those  two  were  who  came  to  me  as  Jane  and  Frank. 
She  said  it  was  their  Double ^  and  I  could  get  no 
further  information  from  her  on  that  subject.  I  was 
positively  certain  that  the  medium  did  not  know  that 
I  had  a  sister,  to  say  nothing  of  their  namej;?. 

We  will  now  endeavor  to  explain  this  phenomenon 
to  you ;  and  in  order  that  you  may  the  more  readily 
understand  us,  it  will  be  necessary  for  us  to  draw  the 
veil  of  the  temple  a  little  more  to  one  side  and  intro- 
duce you  into  this,  to  you,  new  room  of  our  temple. 
We  will  begin  by  calling  your  attention  to  the  fact 
that,  in  our  last  chapter,  we  frequently  made  use  of 
the  expression  spirit  or  spirit  atmosphere.  'T  is  true, 
as  we  have  found  it,  that  man  has  a  physical  body,  a 
spirit  body,  and  a  soul.  But  it  does  not  naturally 
or  reasonably  follow  that  the  spirit  body  is  in  the 
form  of  your  physical  body,  or  that  it  forever  holds 
one  shape;  in  fact,  from  your  physical  birth  on  the 
earth  plane  until  you  have  reached  the  end  of  your 
earth  journey,  the  spirit  that  accompanies  your  physi- 
cal body  is  more  in  the  nature  of  a  body  or  cloud  of 
ether,  composed  of  imponderable  atoms  of  advanced 
matter,  and  does  not  assume  the  form  or  shape  of  the 
human  body  until  you  reach  the  end  of  your  earth 
journey.    Do  not  misunderstand  us  in  this  assertion 


(  216  ) 

or  misconstrue  our  meaning;  for  while  some  sensi- 
tives can  project. their  spirit  atmosphere  for  a  long 
distance  and  impinge  their  thoughts  on  the  atmos- 
phere of  another  sensitive  who  at  the  moment  is  in 
perfect  harmony  with  them  and  receive  an  answer  in 
return,  and  while  the  one  at  a  distance  will  sometimes 
declare  that  while  receiving  the  communication  they 
saw  the  person^  it  was  only  suhjective,  and  was  im- 
pinged on  the  receiver's  brain  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  communication. 

Here  the  spirit,  having  no  further  use  for  the  gross 
or  physical  pile  of  earth  matter,  then  evolves  a  real 
spirit  body  out  of  the  mass  of  imponderable  matter 
that  your  physical  body  is  compelled,  by  the  law  of 
evolution,  to  leave  behind,  while  the  old  atoms  of  your 
earth  body  are  again  cast  into  the  mills  of  the  gods  to 
be  ground  over.  As  your  spirit  atmosphere  is  com- 
posed of  the  various  atoms  of  the  experience  of  your 
five  physical  senses,  and  began  to  accumulate  from 
your  birth  up  to  the  present  time,  and  is  the  real  part 
of  you,  although  invisible  to  you,  as  all  other  atomic 
matter  is,  yet  it  is  perfectly  visible  to  those  spirits 
who  make  this  phase  of  spirit  life  a  special  study. 
Then  you  certainly  ought  to  understand  that  nearly 
all  of  your  past  acts  or  thoughts  are  visible  to  and 
understood  by  controlling  spirits. 

And  now  for  our  explanation  of  the  phenomenon. 
Of  course,  at  various  times  of  your  life,  you  are  think- 
ing of  your  sister  or  friend,  it  may  have  been  ten  years 
before  the  phenomenon,  but  the  thought  or  action  at 
the  time  became  a  part  of  your  atmosphere.  This 
.matter  it  is  that  the  controlling  spirit  sees  or  senses. 


(  217  ) 

The  control  may  not  be  aware  of  the  fact  whether  your 
sister  has  passed  over  or  not  and,  we  are  sorry  to  say, 
in  many  cases,  does  not  care  as  long  as  he  can  play 
upon  your  credulity  and  pave  the  way  for  more  sit- 
tings for  his  medium,  which  means  more  money  for 
him  and  less  for  you.  He  and  the  band  of  spirits  with 
him  make  up  a  materialized  body,  a  mere  automaton, 
which  they  have  under  full  and  complete  control,  and 
can  make  this  machine  say  and  act  just  as  they  will, 
precisely  as  you  control  the  will  of  a  good  hypnotic 
subject;  and  this  law  applies  to  the  clairvoyant  and 
trance  medium  just  the  same.  However,  we  wish  you 
particularly  to  understand  that  these  controlling 
spirits  are  not  gods,  and  cannot  read  or  understand 
all  of  your  atmosphere;  indeed,  there  are  many  at- 
mospheres that  they  cannot  penetrate  at  all,  which 
will,  in  a  measure,  explain  to  you  why  some  sitters 
fail  to  get  any  or  but  indifferent  communications. 
When  you  reflect  that  there  is  much  of  your  own  life 
that  you  cannot  at  the  moment  recall,  and  as  spirits 
are  really  only  one  step  in  advance  of  the  mortal,  you 
will  see  that  it  is  not  so  very  remarkable  after  all. 

At  the  same  time,  spirits  are  like  mortals  in  this 
way :  If  you  make  it  a  custom  to  have  frequent  sit- 
tings with  some  particular  medium,  you  will  find 
from  experience  that  the  more  you  go  the  better  the 
control  can  come  into  rapport  with  your  atmosphere, 
and  the  more  satisfactory  it  will  be  to  you.  What  we 
mean  by  this  is  that  your  atmosphere  is  more  or  less 
cloudy  to  the  control  as  well  as  to  yourself, — i.  e. 
when  you  forget  some  past  event  or  name,  for  in- 
stance, you  will  remark,  "  I  have  it  on  the  end  of  my 


(  218  ) 

tongue  almost,  but  cannot  recall  it."  At  a  later 
period,  without  any  thinking  on  your  part,  the  name 
comes  pat  to  your  mind.  This  shows  you  that  the 
matter  of  thought  has  never  been  lost,  but  is  a  fixed 
part  of  your  atmosphere^  and  the  more  you  come  into 
the  atmosphere  of  the  controls,  the  better  they  can 
familiarize  themselves  with  your  spirit  surroundings. 

IMPERSONATING  A  SPIRIT. 

We  will  call  your  attention  to  a  very  common  oc- 
currence in  public  and  private  seances  where  the 
medium  has  frequently  been  known  to  give  the  name 
of  some  one  of  your  acquaintances  who  has  not  yet 
left  the  physical  body,  and  also  names  that  you  recog- 
nize of  those  that  have.  As  a  general  thing,  the  con- 
trolling spirit  does  not  know  one  from  the  other,  but 
relies  on  their  knowledge  of  human  nature  and  a  close 
watch  and  study  of  the  sitter  to  tell  them  the  differ- 
ence, when  they  can  read  fragmentary  circumstances 
that  connect  the  name  with  some  event  in  your  life,  all 
of  which  is  a  part  and  parcel  of  your  atmosphere. 
You  will  here  observe  that  they  seldom  go  very  far 
into  the  details  of  the  event.  All  you  have  to  do  to 
prove  this  is  to  lead  them  (the  controls)  to  under- 
stand that  your  friend  has  passed  over,  and  you  will 
find  that  the  control  will  give  you  the  same  fragmen- 
tary information.  Where  the  control  errs  is  in  lead- 
ing you  to  believe  that  your  spirit  friend  is  present. 
Then,  in  the  interest  of  truth  and  for  your  own  in- 
formation, just  make  it  a  case  of  diamond  cut  dia- 
mond. We  only  state  this  to  be  the  case,  as  a  general 
rule,  among  professional  mediums.    Of  course,  there 


(219) 

are,  we  are  happy  to  say,  many  cases  where  your  spirit 
friend  is  present,  and  you  can  enjoy  a  very  agreeable 
and  satisfactory  sitting,  when  the  conditions  are 
favorable.  It  is  owing  to  this  fact  that  some  will  call 
the  medium  a  fake,  while  others  are  equally  as  sure 
to  the  contrary,  and  it  leaves  the  honest  investigator 
in  doubt,  or  between  two  fires,  as  it  were.  The  me- 
dium is  not  altogether  responsible  for  this  state  of 
affairs ;  the  control  is  obliged  to  place  him  under  the 
hypnotic  condition,  in  order  that  they  may  the  better 
control  his  vocal  organs,  and  he,  in  this  state,  knows 
not  what  he  is  saying  or  doing. 

We  hope  that  this  will  serve  as  a  profitable  lesson 
to  you  by  showing  you  how  unjust  it  is  to  judge  others 
in  matters  wherein  you  are  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
governing  facts  yourself.  It  is  so  convenient  to  raise 
the  cry  of  "  Fraud !  "  and  make  it  act  as  a  panacea  for 
our  chagrin,  when  things  do  not  always  come  our 
way. 


(  220  ) 


CHAPTEE  XXVIII. 

THERE  IS  NO  DEATH. 
(August  4,  1897.) 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  cold.  That  which  you  call 
cold  is  only  the  absence  of  so  much  heat.  Wherever 
you  find  matter  you  find  motion,  friction,  and  heat. 
So  also  with  darkness;  that  which  you  call  darkness 
is  only  the  absence  of  so  much  light.  Light  and  heat 
are  composed  of  matter,  and,  as  such,  have  an  ex- 
istence ;  where  you  find  motion  you  find  friction  and 
electricity,  which  produce  light.  The  optic  nerve  can- 
not sense  an  atom  of  light  but  there  is  light,  though 
it  is  not  sensed  by  the  human  eye.  And  so  with  death : 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  death ;  like  cold  and  dark- 
ness, it  is  only  a  false  term,  and  conveys  no  truth. 
Were  there  such  a  thing  as  death,  it  could  only  be  in 
the  absence  of  life.  As  there  is  no  known  spot  or  place 
that  does  not  contain  atomic  matter,  which  is  moved 
by  atomic  life,  where  then  will  you  find  unoccupied 
space  for  death? 

You  have  been  taught  of  old  that  "  Death  conquers 
all  things."  Of  all  absurd  ideas,  this  takes  the  palm; 
if  it  were  true  it  would  indeed  make  death  superior  to 
life,  darkness  superior  to  light,  and  cold  superior  to 
heat.    Here  three  supposed  things  that  have  no  actual 


(  221  ) 

existence  are  made  the  annihilators  of  indestructible 
matter.  What  a  paradox!  If  death  destroys  life  it 
must  have  the  cadaver  on  its  hands.  What,  may  we 
ask,  does  it  do  with  this  inanimate  matter?  Does  it, 
death,  go  wandering  around  space  until  it  finds  some 
poor,  weak,  unprotected  atom  and  rob  it  of  its  life  to 
reanimate  its  corpse?  And  in  that  case,  would  it, 
death,  not  still  have  another  corpse,  of  the  despoiled 
atom,  on  its  hands?  You  will  probably  answer  that 
the  human  body  has  been  robbed  of  its  life  by  death. 
Indeed?  Then  let  us  ask:  Where  did  the  body  get 
this  life  from?  You  will  admit  that  you  must  be  in 
possession  of  a  thing  before  you  can  be  robbed  of  it. 
In  fact,  was  life  at  any  time  out  of  your  possession, 
or  was  not  life  with  the  very  first  atom  of  your  body? 
"  /  am  the  Beginning  and  the  End  '^ — Life. 

It  was  life— i.  e.  thought  and  force — that  furnished 
the  first  atom  with  motion  in  the  beginning.  It  is 
then  advanced  to  an  object  body,  thence  to  a  spirit 
body,  and  thence  to  a  soul,  which  is  the  end,  at  least 
of  comprehension,  and  at  no  time  in  its  travels  have 
we  lost  sight  of  it.  This  brings  us  down  to  the  same 
question  asked  by  Immanuel  Kant,  one  hundred 
years  ago: 

HAVE  YOU  A  BODY? 

Have  you  a  body  at  all,  and,  if  so,  how  did  you  be- 
come possessed  of  it?  Again,  did  the  joining  together 
of  a  specified  number  of  atoms  constitute  your  body, 
and  at  what  point  in  your  time  did  the  exact  or 
specified  number  of  atoms  complete  this  body?  When 
one  of  these  atoms  leaves  this  completed  body  is 


(  222  ) 

it  then  dead?  When  all  but  one  atom  leaves  this  com- 
plete body,  is  it  still  alive?  "  O  Death,  where  is  thy 
sting?  " 

As  we  know  that  this  object  called  a  body  is  built 
up  by  a  process  of  integration  at  one  point  while 
undergoing  a  like  process  of  disintegration  at  another 
point,  and  that  this  process  is  ceaseless  from  the  join- 
ing of  the  first  two  atoms  until  a  complete  segregation 
of  all  the  atoms  takes  place  and  it  is  no  longer  an  ob- 
ject. To  use  a  metaphor,  it  came  in  an  unbroken  march 
from  next  to  nothing,  and,  without  ceasing  its  motion, 
returned  in  an  unbroken  march  next  to  nothing.  This 
will  establish  the  fact  that  at  no  particular  time  was 
it  a  body,  but  only  seemed  to  he.  Then,  if  it  never  was 
a  body,  how  could  a  body  die,  to  say  nothing  of  annihi- 
lation? 

The  fact  is  that  that  which  you  call  your  body  is 
not  you  at  all,  nor  is  it  the  keeper  of  your  life,  but  is 
^mply  a  large  or  small  accumulation  of  atom  life, 
attracted  together  for  mutual  benefit.  Where  a  cease- 
less stream  of  migratory  atoms  is  taking  place,  and 
where,  as  one  atom  ceases  to  be  found  useful,  it  is  cast 
out  and  others  take,  its  place,  when,  out  of  this  ac- 
cumulated mass  of  atoms  is  produced  a  spirit  atmos- 
phere, which  is  the  governing  spirit,  or  life,  of  the 
body.  This  is  produced  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
spirit  or  over-life  that  governs  a  family,  a  city,  or  a 
state,  and  is  not  a  physical  thing,  and  is,  therefore, 
not  subject  to  death  or  disintegration,  even  were 
death  a  fact.  As  for  Noah  Webster's  purely  imaginary 
idea  of  the  word  or  term  inanimate — well,  to  be  as 
charitable  as  we  can,  we  will  say  that  when  we  come 


(  223  ) 

across  some  thing  that  we  find  is  in  an  absolute  state 
of  rest,  we  will  acknowledge  that  we  have  found  in- 
animation, but  until  then  we  shall  insist  that* the 
world  has  outgrown  the  term,  and  that  truth  has  no 
further  use  for  it. 

Hold  out  3' our  hand;  now  crook  your  finger  and 
tell  us  what  crooked  your  finger.  Do  you  say  it  was 
your  physical  life  of  the  body?  If  so,  pray  tell  us 
how  the  body  of  a  live  man  knew  that  the  fingers  of  a 
dismembered  arm  that  had  been  buried  for  days  was 
in  a  cramped  position  in  its  grave,  and  was  paining 
him?  When  a  friend  goes  secretly  and  digs  up  the 
arm  and  finds  it  true  that  the  hand  has  been  forced 
into  the  box  in  a  cramped  position,  he  straightens  out 
the  hand  and  says  nothing  to  the  patient  but  the 
patient  complains  no  more.  In  this  case  the  arm  was 
quite  a  distance  from  the  body  and  there  could  not 
have  been  any  phijsical  connection  between  the  two. 
Was  this  arm  dead?    No;   no  more  than  it  ever  was. 

There  is  no  dead;  but  the  spirit  atmosphere  which 
is  your  individual  life,  and  is  outside  as  well  as  inside 
of  your  pile  of  atomic  matter  called  a  body,  whether 
dismembered  or  not,  is  all  the  personal  life  you  pos- 
sess. It  is  also  an  acknowledged  fact,  of  which  you 
may  easily  procure  the  evidence  by  inquiring  of  those 
who  have  lost  a  limb,  that  they  who  are  minus  such  a 
limb  can,  or  seem  to,  feel  the  fingers  on  the  dismem- 
bered part.  This  shows  that  the  whole  spirit  and  that 
part  of  the  brain  governing  the  fingers  is  all  present 
and  in  full  operation,  and  is  additional  proof  that 
neither  the  body  nor  any  part  of  it  is  you;  while  the 
spirit,  still  being  able  to  recognize  all  the  absent  mem- 


(  224  ) 

bers,  is  proof  of  it  (the  spirit)  being  the  only  thing 
that  is  real  and  is  ruled  by  that  which  accompanied 
the*  first  atom  when  it  started  on  its  earth  journey 
from  out  of  the  Infinite^  viz.,  Life^  or  an  undeveloped 

The  student  will  understand  that  Life  is  not  an 
entity,  but  only  a  word  or  term  used  to  convey  the 
knowledge  of  the  presence  of  thought ,  force,  and  sub- 
stance, which  are  infinite  entities ;  the  effect  of  these 
three  is  what  is  called  life, 

(See  Chap.  XXXVIII.) 


(  225  ) 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

IS     PHYSICAL     FORCE     TRANSMITTIBLE     TO     SPIRIT     AND 
VICE  VERSA? 

(August  12,  1897.) 

As  we  know  that  all  physical  force  is  derived  from 
life  only,  and  as  you  are  aware  of  the  fact  that  object 
matter  has  frequently  been  moved  in  the  presence  of 
thousands  of  reliable  witnesses,  yourself  included, 
without  any  apparent  physical  cause,  and  as  we  know 
of  no  effect  ever  having  been  produced  without  cause, 
it  is  permissible  for  us  to  endeavor  to  solve  this 
phenomenon. 

If  after  the  lapse  of  the  past  fifty  years  of  patient 
investigation  by  many  of  your  most  enlightened 
scientists  you  have  failed  to  find  a  physical  cause  to 
solve  this  riddle,  would  it  then  not  be  the  duty  of  those 
who  seek  knowledge  for  the  love  of  truth  to  look  for  a 
hypothetical  cause?  At  least,  until  you  can  find 
something  better?  Would  it  not  be  more  creditable 
to  this,  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century,  than  a  dis- 
play of  that  which  might  be  construed  at  a  later 
period  in  history  (when  these  phenomena  will  most 
undoubtedly  be  a  well-recognized  and  better  under- 
stood fact)  as  dogmatism,  fanaticism,  petty  jealousy, 
or  a  hereditary  hatred  of  all  things  heterodoxical. 

(For  it  does  move,  for  all  that.) 


(  226  ) 

While  we  recognize  the  valuable  services  of  those 
who  made  this  and  kindred  subjects  a  life  study — 
such  as  Hume,  Hegel,  Kant,  and  others — and  who 
were  undoubtedly  well  qualified  to  handle  the  ques- 
tion from  such  data  as  they  had  at  hand  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  when  we  consider  all  the  radi- 
cal, fanatical,  and  tyrannical  persecutions  of  those 
who  dared  even  to  advance  an  idea  not  first  approved 
by  the  ruling  church  of  those  scholastic   days,   of 
wholesale  murder,  torture,  and  imprisonment,  we  can 
only  wonder  that  they  had  the  temerity  to  do  and 
dare  as  well  as  they  have.     But,  though  the  mills  of 
the  gods  grind  slowly,  they  still  are  grinding  exceed- 
ing fine,  and  from  the  birth  of  civilization  in  the 
Western  hemisphere  this  unmitigated  and  vindictive 
^nemy  of  free  thought  has  been  bridled,  and  the  world 
no  longer  is  required  to  first  submit  its  idea  of  truth 
to  those  who  visited  their  wrath  on  those  who  differed 
with  them,  on  St.  Bartholomew's  Eve  and  destroyed 
the  great  Alexandrian  library. 

The  greatest  difficulty  that  those  old  writers  of  a 
hundred  years  ago  had  to  encounter,  and  even  those 
of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  were,  first, 
the  church  and  its  opposition ;  they  were  not  allowed 
to  investigate  on  any  line  detrimental  to  that  power, 
at  least  in  an  open  and  fair  controversy.  The 
second  and  most  important  difficulty  was  their  lack 
of  sufficient  and  reliable  knowledge  of  those  phenom- 
ena which  have  been  so  abundantly  distributed  over 
the  surface  of  the  whole  civilized  world  within  the 
last  fifty  years. 


(  227  ) 

MIRACLES. 

In  those  days,  when  the  Church  was  so  all  powerful 
as  to  sweep  up  in  its  onward  march  nearly  all  civiliza- 
tion, if  it  ever  had  a  zenith,  that  should  certainly  have 
been  the  time  to  produce  its  so-called  miracles  (now 
understood  as  spirit  phenomena).  Let  us  ask.  Did 
they  do  so?  Did  they,  by  their  infallibility  and 
special  divine  wisdom,  convince  Galileo,  one  of  their 
own  especially  divine  monks,  that  he  was  wrong?  Or 
did  they  resort  to  the  same  argument  as  on  St.  Bar- 
tholomew's Eve?  Did  they  show  Kant  a  '^  Holy 
Ghost,''  or  any  other  ghost?  Did  they  show  him  writ- 
ing on  the  wall,  or  even  slate-writing?  Did  they  pro- 
duce, for  the  sound  consideration  of  so  scholastic  a 
mind  as  Kant's,  the  phenomena  of  clairvoyance,  mind- 
reading,  thought  transference,  materialization  of  the 
body  or  voice,  etherealization,  spirit  photography,  oil- 
paintings,  levitation  of  heavy  bodies,  spirit-rapping, 
hypnotism,  and  a  variety  of  other  phenomena  that  are 
no  longer  a  question  of  truth  before  your  scientists 
of  to-day?  No,  my  friend;  under  such  a  bitter 
fanaticism,  the  atmosphere  of  those  days  was  not  pro- 
pitious for  the  real  spirit  of  truth.  The  world  was 
just  emerging  from  that  mistaken  policy  where  might 
made  right.  It  is  not  so  much  of  a  wonder,  after  all, 
that  the  mud  should  still  cling  to  the  Christian 
church,  nor,  as  those  questions  were  of  an  unknown 
quantity  or  quality  at  that  time,  and  as  all  things 
then  were  looked  upon  in  a  purely  physical  or  worldly 
sense,  is  it  astonishing  that  so  wise  a  man  a^  Kant 
should  find  himself  in  a  quandary  as  to  the  question 


(  228  ) 

of  a  first  cause,  but,  like  most  of  his  predecessors, 
rather  incline  to  ignore  it  as  a  postulate  in  meta- 
physics. 

As  Mr.  Huxley  and  a  few  others  of  a  later  date 
have  shown  a  desire  to  jump  the  question  by  neither 
affirming  or  denying  it,  but  find  it  more  convenient 
to  stop  at  the  so-called  ''  protoplasm,"  let  us  hope 
more  from  a  lack  of  knowledge  than  a  want  of  cour- 
age, then  we  still  feel  it  incumbent  upon  us  to  con- 
tinue our  investigations  along  the  same  lines  that 
have  carried  us  thus  far  successfully  towards,  at  least, 
a  rational  and  common-sense  solution  of  the  question, 
viz :  Is  physical  force  transmittible  to  spirit,  and  vice 
versa? 

Force  is  the  second  principle  of  life,  as  energy  or 
thought  is  the  first  principle,  and  wherever  you  find 
life  you  find  force. 

The  time  has  now  arrived  when  the  world  should 
cease  to  move  in  the  same  old  worn  rut  on  ac- 
count of  its  ease  of  travel,  especially  if  it  would  seek 
to  know  if  there  might  not  be  other  roads  not  only  as 
smooth,  but  perhaps  shorter,  which  also  lead  to  Kome. 
The  old  theory  that  to  move  a  physical  body  requires 
physical  force  might  be  true  if  there  were  no  other 
force  in  existence  that  could  be  used  by  man,  and  one 
who  labors  under  the  old  theory  might  be  excused  for 
asking  such  a  question.  But  if,  as  we  think,  we  have 
already  established  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  other 
force  than  physical — namely  spirit  force,  by  so  doing 
you  will  see  that  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  transmit 
or  borrow  force  from  the  physical  for  the  spirit's  use 


{  229  ) 

at  all  times,  though,  we  are  free  to  admit,  it  is  not  an 
unusual  thing  to  do. 

Our  object  in  answering  your  question  in  this 
manner  was  to  show  you  how  necessary  it  is  to  be 
careful  and  frame  your  question  so  that  the  answer 
may  convey  as  nearly  as  possible  the  knowledge 
sought  for.  We  find  you  in  a  quandary  as  to  how  a 
spirit  can  go  into  a  garden,  pluck  a  flower,  and  then 
pass  the  same  through  a  solid  wall  and  into  the  hand 
of  a  mortal  with  the  dew  undisturbed  on  the  flower, 
which,  we,  your  spirit  friends,  have  done  for  you  on 
several  occasions. 


PASSING  MATTER  THROUGH  MATTER. 

As  we  have  before  stated,  no  physical  or  object 
matter  is  a  solid,  but  is  composed  of  atoms,  held 
together,  let  us  say  for  the  purpose  of  this  illustra-tion, 
like  the  honey-bee  when  swarming.  These  atoms, 
though  appearing  to  you  to  be  solid;  while  in  the 
object — say  of  a  rose — are  not  so  by  any  means  and 
are  capable  of  being  separated  from  each  other  for  a 
short  time  by  a  chemical  law  of  spirit.  These  atoms 
when  so  divided  are  in  the  form  of  a  spirit  ether,  and 
are  passed  between  the  atoms  of  a  door  or  wall,  when 
they  are  again  returned  by  the  same  law  to  their  origi- 
nal form;  this  process  does  not  disturb  the  oxygen 
and  hydrogen  which  form  the  dew-drop,  any  more 
than  the  water  which  composes  the  rose,  and  this  same 
process  is  used  when  a  white  handkerchief  is  passed 
through  your  coat  or  a  black  cloth.  The  atoms  of  the 
one  are  passed  between  the  atoms  of  the  other  by  an 


(  230  ) 

almost  instantaneous  disintegration  and  integration 
of  the  atoms.  By  bringing  this  chemical  law  to  bear 
on  the  rose  we  are  enabled  to  suspend  the  law  of  sym- 
pathetic attraction,  and,  in  restoring  the  law,  each 
atom  is  again  attracted  to  the  same  neighboring  atom, 
and  thus  it  is  that  the  flower  is  returned  to  its  natural 
freshness. 

Do  not  lose  sight  of  the  fundamental  fact  that  it  is 
the  spirit  or  invisible  that  is  the  real  of  life,  and  that 
the  physical  is  only  in  a  temporary  or  passing  con- 
dition; hence  the  power  derived  from  spirit  far  ex- 
ceeds any  physical  power.  But  you,  who  are  only  now 
in  your  physical  or  earth  state,  can  form  no  adequate 
idea  of  the  immense  power  of  spirit,  you  yet  having 
had  but  little  if  any  experience  of  the  next  state  of 
your  being. 

Forces  there  are  in,  around,  and  about  the  earth 
planet  yet  undiscovered  by  man  and  of  such  immense 
power  that  if  you  but  knew  and  could  utilize  their 
power  you  could  almost  become  a  very  god,  forces  of 
which  the  wisest  of  mortals  have  not  the  faintest  con- 
ception, so  very  fine  and  insidious  and  yet  so  grand 
and  far  reaching.  Is  it,  then,  any  wonder  that  these 
same  wise  men  of  earth  fail  to  comprehend,  even  in 
the  slightest  degree,  the  Infinite  Cause  of  all  Physical 
EfPect? 

But  a  new  light,  my  friend,  is  dawning  for  the 
people  of  earth. 

THE   IMMORTALITY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

You  have  now  taken  another  step  of  vi-tal  impor- 
tance in  vour  school  of  letters  where  all  the  forces  of 


(  231  ) 

the  wise  spirits  will  be  concentrated  for  years  to  come, 
lending  all  the  assistance  the  surrounding  conditions 
will  allow  to  enable  your  professors  of  psychology  to 
grasp  and  teach  to  the  rising  generation  this,  the 
most  beautiful  and  important  of  all  truths,  and  give 
to  them  an  actual  know  ledge  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  and  when  a  definite  and  final  answer  may  be 
given  to  Job,  "  If  a  man  dies,  shall  he  live  again?  " 


(  232  ) 


CHAPTEE   XXX. 

AN  O^ER-TRUE  STORY  OF  THE  FIRST  DAWN  OF  A  SPARK 

OF   LIFE. 

Wherein  we  locate  our  story  ten  thousand  miles 
away  in  space  and  far  from  any  other  planet.  Where 
we  represent  the  Life  as  a  thing  apart  from  matter, 
and  as  having  been  slumbering  for  aeons  of  ages, 
awaiting  its  time  to  quicken  and  move,  using  the  atom 
of  matter  as  a  bedchamber  while  sleeping.  The  moral 
of  which  is :  As  it  is  with  one  life,  so  it  is  with  all  life, 

MY  FIRST  REALIZATION  OF  LIFE  IN  SPACE. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  I  did  but  dream  that  I  was 
dreaming  of  a  dream ;  I  looked  around  to  seek  a  cause; 
'T  was  one  eternal  sameness,  alow  and  aloft,  to  the 
right  and  left,  but  sparks  of  life  and  matter.  But  I 
awake,  I  realize  that  I  am.  How  do  I  know  I  am? 
Until  I  came  into  contact  with  matter  'twas  but  a 
dream,  a  spark  of  life.  With  me,  at  that  moment,  I 
realized  that  it  was  conquer  or  be  conquered.  Shall 
this  dumb,  coarse,  inert  thing,  this  atom  of  substance 
surpass  my  power?  Or  am  I,  and  I  alone,  all  power? 
Ah,  ha !  ven%  vidi^,  vici.  Henceforth  I  am  King,  and 
matter  must  my  will  obey.  For  am  not  I,  from  this 
time  on,  knowledge?    Ah,  and  if  I  know,  I  '11  reason 


(  233  ) 

thus :  To  increase  my  power  I  '11  have  to  enlarge,  I  '11 
advance  and  advance  until  all  power  shall  be  mine. 
By  this  power  to  attract  will  I  continue  to  attract  all 
sparks  around  me  until  I  shall  become  a  host  unto 
myself. 

For  if  two  are  greater  than  one  then  thousands  are 
greater  than  two,  until  I  shall  weary  of  my  work  and 
become  a  world. 

But  I  find  I  cannot  rest,  for  am  not  I  the  parent  of 
motion,  and  was  it  not  through  motion  that  I  became 
aware  of  mine  own  existence?  Then  if  I  cease  my 
labor,  shall  I  not  again  sleep,  die?  Ah,  as  well  might 
one  cease  to  be.  And  could  I  cease  to  be?  Alas,  no! 
'T  is  on  and  on  and  on ;  worlds  and  worlds  within  a 
world;  'tis  one  perpetual  motion^  nature  repeating 
upon  herself. 

Then  hoio  shall  I  continue  this  labor  of  mine?  Ah, 
ha!  I  see!  I'  11  set  this  host  (atoms  of  substance)  of 
mine  to  work  and  will  first  organize  my  forces  out  of 
this  chaotic  condition.  I  '11  place  captains  over  tens 
and  captains  over  thousands;  then  shall  I  form  this 
host  of  mine  into  sixty-five  or  more  legions,  and  I  '11 
know  them  as  they  are:  Hydrogen,  Oxygen,  Carbon, 
Nitrogen,  Iron,  Phosphorous,  Sulphur,  Potassium, 
Soda,  and  others.  Over  these,  my  simple  subjects 
(substance),  I  '11  place  my  General,  Sir  B'inary  Com- 
pound^ and  will  give  to  him  my  Caduceus  which  shall 
to  him  impart  the  mystic  secrets  of  my  spirit  ether  (or 
atmosphere),  bidding  him  go  to  and  discover  the 
many  uses  he  can  place  my  hosts  for  their  advantage 
and  progression,  teaching  to  him  as  I  had  found  it, 
that  in  unity  there  is  strength,  and  by  his  knowledge 


(  234  ) 

of  compounding,  with  all  mine  hosts  to  back  him,  he 
shall  produce  a  physical  thing  and  he  the  evolution 
of  matter.  He  shall  teach  his  captains  of  thousandr^ 
and  of  tens  to  ever  and  forever  drill  and  instruct  these 
mighty  hosts  in  the  law  of  evolution  and  the  survival 
of  the  fittest,  for  them  to  gather  experience  on  their 
travels  that  they  may  become  possessed  of  an  ex- 
panded reason  and  intelligence;  when  wisdom  shall 
no  longer  be  to  them  a  dream  or  a  subject  of  annihila- 
tion, but  real  and  eternal  life. 

Teach  each  one  and  all  that  they,  as  single  individ- 
ual members  of  the  one  infinite  and  eternal  whole,  that 
should  one  of  these  my  children  (atoms)  die  or  cease 
to  he,  then  shall  I  no  longer  be  perfection  and  remem- 
ber that  thou,  my  general,  art  my  very  vitals  for — 
United  we  stand,  divided  we  shall  surely  fall. 

WHICH  WAS  FIRST^  THE  EGG  OR  THE  CHICKEN? 

If  Darwin's  theory  of  evolution  is  correct,  i.  e.  on 
the  origin  of  species,  can  you  tell  me  on  that  hypo- 
thesis which  was  first,  the  egg  or  the  chicken? 

Can  man  number  the  sands  of  the  sea?  Then  how 
futile  to  attempt  to  grasp  the  infinite  variation  of 
atomic  structure !  As  we  knoiv  that  no  two  things  are 
alike,  and  reason  thus :  That  no  two  planets  are  alike, 
no  two  animals,  vegetables,  or  minerals  are  alike,  then 
you  can  reasonably  infer  that  no  two  atoms  are  alike. 
As  you  only  know  of  life  by  its  manifestations 
through  matter  and  its  being  the  first  cause  of  all 
motion  and  motion  being  the  cause  of  all  change, 
would  it  be  at  all  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  no  two 
atoms  of  life  were  alike? 


(  235  ) 

As  it  was  not  our  intention  when  we  began  this 
work  to  offer  you  our  belief ^  but  confine  ourselves  to 
knoivn,  or,  at  least,  self-evident^  facts  for  your  con- 
sideration, we  find  in  the  question  you  have  submitted 
a  tendency  to  lead  us  beyond  our  previous  limitation, 
and  would  also  have  the  further  tendency  to  expose 
our  work  to  unfair  criticism.  For  us  to  attempt  to 
digest  the  question  thoroughly  would  compel  us  to 
go  beyond  (if  there  is  a  beyond)  that  point  which  we 
have  established  as  the  known  beginning  of  human 
comprehension  or  a  time  previous  to  the  existence  of 
life.  Were  we  inclined  to  attempt  such  a  vague  and 
perhaps  chimerical  course,  it  would  only  have  the  ten- 
dency to  lead  us  into  all  manner  of  tvild  speculations 
and  beliefs  that  would  serve  no  beneficial  end,  and 
might  be  the  means  of  retarding  the  advance  of  truth. 
However,  we  will  endeavor  to  give  you  such  views  on 
the  subject  as  lie  within  our  prescribed  limits. 

Life  is  the  only  motive  power  that  we  know  of  and 
we  only  know  of  its  existence  as  an  undisputed  fact, 
by  observing  its  action  on  matter — i.  e.  we  see  and 
recognize  it  as  a  thing  apart  from  matter.  Then, 
whenever  and  wherever  we  recognize  motion,  we  must 
agree  that  said  motion  was  produced  by  some  peculiar 
law  which  we  are  rationally  compelled  to  designate 
as  the  infinite,  or  a  point  in  time  previous  to  all 
human  or  spirit  comprehension.  We  will,  therefore, 
begin  our  explanation  by  observing  that  before  motion 
there  must  be  Thought^  Eeason,  and  Intelligence.  Let 
the  amount  in  quantity  or  quality  be  with  you  of  .1 
secondary  consideration. 

It  is  a  conceded  fact  that  if  a  thing  moves  from  one 


(  236  ) 

place  to  another  (however  short  the  distance)  of  its 
own  volition,  using  its  own  forces  or  energy  to  ac- 
complish a  preconceived  object  for  a  definite  purpose, 
that  that  very  fact  establishes  the  evidence  and  is  of 
itself  the  evidence  of  intelligence;  and,  as -we  have 
already  described  to  you  the  law  of  like  attracting 
like — i.  e.  gold  to  gold,  apple  to  apple,  etc. — it  will  be 
unnecessary  for  us  to  repeat  the  same.  As  intelli- 
gence is  the  result  of  and  is  produced  by  reason,  then 
we  also  know  that  we  produce  or  procure  our  reason 
from  a  single  thougJit,  for  we  hope  that  you  will  not 
contend,  after  all  we  have  previously  said  on  this  sub- 
ject, that  the  child  of  six  months  of  age,  when  it 
crawled  off  a  porch  and  was  hurt,  possessed  reason, 
nor  can  you  deny  that  it  had  one  thought. 

We  will  now  appeal  again  to  your  own  common 
sense  and  ask  you  to  look  around  you  and  see  if  you 
can  for  a  fact  recall  in  your  own  experience  two 
people  whose  reasoning  faculties  were  perfectly  alike. 
No.  But  when  tested,  the  wisest  minds  that  we  have 
any  record  of  are  radically  different  when  brought 
under  microscopic  or  a  crucial  test.  Then  it  follows 
that,  as  life  produced  reason,  we  have  a  perfect  right 
to  infer  that  life  in  the  so-called  elementary  or  atomic 
state,  also  differs  in  its  own  peculiar  law;  but 
whether  this  difference  in  atomic  life  is  produced  by 
another  law,  lying  beyond  the  atom,  is  not  within  our 
knowledge  to  say,  and  is  quite  sufficient  data  for  you 
to  work  upon  if  you  confine  your  researches  within  the 
limits  we  have  established — i.  e.  comprehension. 

Having  led  you  as  carefully  as  we  are  able  up  to 
the  question  of  the  egg^  we  will  now  say  again  that 


(  237  ) 

the  atom  of  matter  is  the  egg  itself  of  all  organized 
formation,  of  whatsoever  nature  and  composition, 
and  is  spherical  in  shape.  You  will  also  see  that  while 
you  are  accustomed  to  say  that  these  two  pigeons, 
apples,  or  twins  are  just  alike,  nevertheless  such  an 
occurrence  would  in  truth  be  a  miracle.  Again,  very 
many  people  are  accustomed  to  draw  a  distinction 
between  organized  life  and  Mr.  Huxley's  proto- 
plasm or  organic  and  inorganic  matter,  which  is  only 
another  of  those  false  gods  to  be  overthrown  for  the 
very  moment  that  two  ultimate  atoms  come  together, 
right  there  you  have  the  very  beginning  of  organiza- 
tion.  Will  scientists  dare  dispute  this?  This  being 
the  case  you  will  perceive  that,  long  before  atomic 
matter  became  objective  to  man,  the  embryo  object 
was  in  a  process  of  atomic  formation,  and  when  man, 
by  his  ingenuity,  can  tell  you  just  how  many  atoms 
it  takes  to  make  an  object  then  you  may  expect  him  to 
know  and  be  able  to  teach  you  where  the  organic  and 
inorganic,  animation  and  inanimation,  begins  and 
leaves  off. 

If,  as  we  think,  we  have  established  the  fact  that 
there  are  no  two  known  things  alike,  not  excepting 
life,  then  this  known  fact  is  the  very  best  of  evidence 
of  the  truth  of  the  origin  of  all  advancing  and  chan- 
ging species  or  organisms. 

Now,  as  to  the  egg  being  before  the  chicken,  practi- 
cally speaking.  Certainly  no  intelligent  seeker  after 
truth  can  doubt  Mr.  Darwin's  explanation,  as  we 
understand  him.  First  we  have  the  individual  atomic 
difference,  second  the  struggle  for  existence — hybrids, 
climatic,  etc.    Does  not  the  alligator  lay  an  eggl   The 


(  238  ) 

water  lizard?  The  winged  lizard?  You  will  find  all 
this  in  detail  fully  explained  by  Darwin,  and  in 
which  we  more  than  agree;  and  it  would,  therefore, 
only  take  up  unnecessary  space  in  this  work.  We 
will  quote,  however,  one  single  remark  of  that  dis- 
tinguished scholar,  to  wit :  "  That  systematists  will 
have  to  decide  whether  any  form  (objective  matter)  be 
sufficiently  constant  and  distinct  from  other  forms  to 
be  capable  of  definition  and  deserve  a  specific  name." 
Like  Darwin,  we  shall  insist  on  their  producing  a 
specific  line  of  demarcation  before  assuming  the  right 
to  specify.  Hence  we  shall  be  led  to  weigh  more  care- 
fully and  to  value  higher  the  actual  amount  of 
difference  between  them. 

That  there  may  be  no  misunderstanding  of  our 
position,  we  will  say  that  the  systematists  should 
be  required  to  produce  a  single  species  that  cannot  be 
changed,  either  by  accident  or  design,  in  the  course  of 
six  or  eight  generations. 

We  cannot  refrain  from  calling  your  attention  to 
Mr.  Darwin's  predication  regarding  the  inestimable 
value  psychology  will  assume  in  the  future  in  throw- 
ing light  on  many  of  the  mystic  laws  of  life,  for  we 
can  assure  you  it  will  be  found  the  open  sesame  to 
many  beautiful  truths  of  nature.  As  a  partial  cor- 
roboration of  that  great  man's  wisdom,  we  will  call 
your  attention  to  his  prediction  on  psychology  made 
about  the  year  1869, — that,  in  the  distant  future,  it 
would  be  based  on  a  new  foundation.  Fifteen  years 
later  your  college  of  letters,  for  the  first  time, 
established  a  special  chair  of  learning  on  psychology, 
which,  we  hope,  not  in  the  distant  but  in  the  near 


(  239  ) 

future,  and  with  the  proper  nourishment,  will  more 
than  fulfill  Mr.  Darwin's  most  sanguine  expectations. 
Please  accept  this  as  a  tribute  of  our  appreciation 
to  one  who  has  given  to  man  the  most  valuable  work 
of  the  nineteenth  century — "  The  Origin  of  Species/' 
— which  we  hope  will  be  the  entering  wedge  that  shall 
forever  split  asunder  fanaticism,  ignorance,  and 
superstition. 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 

IF  NO  MATTER  IS  DESTROYED;,  WHAT  BECOMES  OF  IT  AFTER 
THE  EARTH  CAN  NO  LONGER  ASSIST  IT? 

You  will  understand  that,  while  we  recognize  the 
existence  of  life  as  a  thing  apart  from  matter,  the 
ontological  proof  of  which  we  offer  you  is  its  essential 
attributes,  a  thing  that  is  not  matter  itself,  but  is 
inseparable  from  matter,  in  something  the  same  sense 
as  you  would  say  that  energy  is  not  motion,  and,  while 
we  find  that  energy  is  always  found  in  company  with 
motion,  yet  it  is  a  thing  apart  from  the  motion  itself. 
We  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  implying  that  all 
life  is  human  life  or  that  it  eventually  is  refined  into 
the  over-life  of  a  human  soul.  With  this  slight  ex- 
planation for  a  basis  we  will  proceed  to  elucidate. 

As  the  apple  has  served  us  so  well  up  to  the  present 
time  for  the  purpose  of  an  illustration,  we  will  again 
avail  ourselves  of  its  service.  After  the  matter  is 
passed  off  from  the  apple  in  the  form  of  fragrance, 
a  part  of  this  advanced  matter  is  impinged  on  the 
animal  brain,  it  may  be,  both  human  and  brute,  and 
is  again  advanced  into  thought  matter  of  which  we 
have  before  spoken.  Now,  you  will  understand  that 
there  still  remains  a  considerable  portion  of  this 
fragrance  that  is  not  so  disposed  of;  a  part  of  this 
remainder,   after   the  disintegration   of   the  apple, 


(  241  ) 

assumes  the  form  of  a  spirit  apple;  the  remainder 
passes  into  the,  let  us  say,  spirit  atmosphere  of  the 
earth  and  assumes  the  form  of  imponderable  matter. 

This  law  applies  to  all  advanced  matter.  You  will 
remember  that  in  this  condition,  as  matter  in  bulk, 
as  you  of  the  earth  are  accustomed  to  view  and 
measure  it,  is  an  indefinite  amount  which  you  can 
probably  better  comprehend  when  we  explain  to  you 
that  as  imponderable  surrounding  the  earth  it  again 
assumes  the  atomic  form,  but  in  an  advanced  condi- 
tion. 

And  now  your  attention,  please.  Out  of  this  ad- 
vanced matter,  by  a  higher  power  of  the  law  of  life,  of 
which  you,  the  unadvanced  people  of  earth,  have  as 
yet  had  no  experience,  as  you  have  not  reached  your 
full  earth  development,  is  produced  a  very  great  many 
forces  and  spirit  substances  that  are  again  impinged^ 
hy  a  reflecting  process,  on  to  the  affairs  and  matters 
of  earth.  In  this  condition  matter  finds  itself  so  at- 
tenuated as  to  appear  to  your  physical  sense  more  in 
the  form  or  nature  of  an  influence.  We,  as  spirits, 
recognize  its  existence  by  its  effect  on  the  earth  matter 
in  many  ways  that  are  almost  unconscious  to  you, 
but  we  will  endeavor  to  convey  a  partial  idea  of  it 
to  you  when  we  say  it  acts  on  the  gross  matter  of 
earth  to  improve  its  condition  in  the  same  manner 
that  we,  as  spirits,  are  at  this  moment  acting  on  you, 
our  amanuensis.  Does  not  the  information  which 
we  have  been  enabled  from  time  to  time  to  impress 
upon  your  mind  improve  your  condition'^ 

In  conveying  our  thoughts  to  you  we  are  using  a 
definite  force  in  the  form  of  spirit-waves  of  thought. 


(  242  ) 

Now,  do  not  place  a  wrong  construction  on  our  ex- 
planation of  matter  returning  to  earth  matter  and 
deduce  from  that  that  the  theosophists  are  right  in 
advocating  the  doctrine  of  reincarnation,  for  we  mean 
nothing  of  the  kind.  If  you  properly  digest  our  re- 
marks, you  will  see  that  a  rational  and  logical  expla- 
nation is  for  the  higher  and  more  perfect  matter  to 
sympathize  with  the  lower  matter,  by  lending  a  part 
of  its  forces  to  assist  the  weaker  one,  precisely  the 
same  as  the  father  assists  the  child  and  as  the  spirits 
assist  you.    This  is  evolution. 

Do  you  not  follow  the  same  law  when  you  graft  the 
rose  or  apple?  Can  you  by  any  logical  process  of 
reasoning  claim  that  the  real  spirit  of  the  tree  from 
which  you  procured  the  bud  has  ceased  to  be  in  the 
original  tree  and  has  taken  up  its  abode  in  the  grafted 
tree?  We  think  not.  While  we  recognize  that  a  part 
of  the  spirit  atmosphere  is  acting  on  the  earth  matter 
for  its  improvement,  yet  we  also  recognize  that 
another  part  of  it  is  passing  on  and  on  to,"  we  hope, 
something  still  higher.  But  as  this  brings  us  to  our 
dead  line,  so  to  speak,  we  will  not  indulge  in  specula- 
tion. 

Again  we  will  illustrate  it  in  this  way :  Your  body, 
or  earth  matter,  decomposes  or  is  thrown  into  the 
mills  of  the  gods  after  delivering  a  certain  portion  of 
its  work  into  the  spirit  atmosphere,  this  spirit  atmos- 
phere reflects  back  on  the  earth  a  portion  and  projects 
a  certain  per  cent,  on  to  a  higher  plane.  This  is,  in  a 
measure,  a  constant  process  of  evolving  with  a  slow 
advance  towards  perfection. 

We  will  take  this  opportunity  to  again  illustrate 


(243) 

the  Mystic  Bridge  that  connects  the  occult  with  the 
physical  by  taking  the  modus-operandi  of  the  human 
heart.  Here,  you  will  observe,  large  quantities  of  the 
blood  are  forced  into  the  minute  veins  at  the  farthest 
extremity  of  the  body,  delivering  its  load  of  vital 
energy,  then  returning  to  the  lungs  to  be  again  re- 
vitalized, to  then  repeat,  round  and  round  the  circle, 
losing  a  little  and  gaining  a  little,  or,  in  other  words, 
It  takes  on  a  load  of  unprogressed  atoms  and  in  its 
passage  over  the  body  advances  these  atoms  one  circle 
higher.  Now,  if  the  atmosphere  should  not  be  in  a 
pure  condition,  but  charged  with  weak  and  feeble  sub- 
stance, such  as  the  disease  germs  that  were  thrown 
off  from  other  weak  and  imperfectly  developed  bodies, 
then  your  blood  and  body  must  assume  a  like  con- 
dition and  compel  you  to  give  off  into  the  surrounding 
atmosphere  the  same  imperfectly  developed  spirit  sub- 
stance. Now,  the  spirit  world  is  depending  upon  the 
kind  of  material  you  of  the  earth  furnish  it  to  build 
their  edifice  from.  Hence  you  will  see,  if  you  of  the 
lower  condition  forward  to  them  rotten  or  defective 
material  to  work  upon,  how  can  you  expect  them  to  be 
able  to  reflect  hack  to  you  a  healthy  spirit  atmos- 
pheref  This  applies  not  only  to  the  matter,  but  to 
the  thought,  and  this  round-and-round  process  of  ad- 
vancing and  receding  is  from  the  first  undeveloped 
atom  of  life  and  matter  t«  the  highest  state  of  spirit 
condition  that  we  have  any  knowledge  of  and  may  be 
recognized  by  you,  just  as  when  you  watch  the  incom- 
ing tide  on  the  ocean ;  you  see  the  wavelets  rolling  up 
on  the  sand  (of  time),  then  just  as  surely  receding; 
you  will  notice  that,  perhaps,  the  second  and  third 


(  244  ) 

waves  do  not  reach  tlie  height  of  the  first.  This  was  not 
an  accident,  but  was  caused  by  other  forces  (disease 
germs,  etc. )  not  acting  at  that  moment  on  the  surface 
as  they  should. 

How  many  forces  are  acting  on  matter  of  which 
you  have  not  the  slightest  idea!  In  this  manner  are 
the  affairs  of  families,  cities,  nations,  and  finally  the 
world  itself,  effected  for  its  advancing  and  retrograd- 
ing motion.  When  you  of  the  earth  or  a  part  of  the 
earth  are  involved  in  war,  which  again  involves  blood- 
shed, hatred,  vindictiveness,  then  retaliation  (pause 
here  and  consider),  what  must  be  the  quality  of  the 
atmosphere  you  are  projecting  onto  the  spirit  world 
for  it  to  refine  and  refiect  back?  Can  you  wonder  at 
the  retrograde  motion  of  civilization — i.  e.  the  dark 
ages?  This  law  acts  on  all  organisms  from  the 
smallest  monad,  whether  it  be  animal,  vegetable, 
mineral,  or  spirit,  the  one  depending  upon  the  kind 
of  support  it  receives  from  the  other,  whether  its  pro- 
gress shall  be  rapid  or  slow,  higher  or  lower.  For  all 
strength,  intelligence,  and  influence  the  spirit  world 
(which  is  the  sun's  family)  is  depending  on  the  com- 
plete and  harmonious  unity  of  the  single  atoms  for  its 
existence  and  power  to  perpetuate  itself,  and  from 
this  known  fact  we  deduce,  a  priori,  that  this  system 
is  continuous  ad  infinitum. 

If  this  be  the  truth,  as  it  certainly  is,  as  far  as  we 
have  any  knowledge,  then  you  can  readily  compre- 
hend that  God  is  not  a  being,  a  person,  or  a  thing,  hut 
is  the  accumulation,  the  essence,  and  the  result  of  all 
that  is,  and  has  had  an  existence  ( Pantheism. )  Hence 
to  pray  to  this  kind  of  a  god  for  a  special  favor  by  an 


(  245  ) 

individual  is  sheer  nonsense,  and  not  common  sense. 
Still  you  can  accomplish  much  good  by  prayer  when 
large  communities  unite  in  a  sincere  and  purely  spirit- 
ual desire,  by  sending  out  large  and  constant  waves  of 
thought  matter  and  by  keeping  this  sincerity  up  for 
some  time,  and  living  up  to  your  desires  spiritually. 
By  so  doing,  you  will  find  the  same  old  answer :  In 
unity  there  is  strength. 

There  are  many  well-authenticated  cases  where  it 
would  appear  that  a  God  had  intervened  in  a  personal 
manner.  This  we  will  explain  in  this  way :  Every  in- 
dividual of  earth  has  one  or  more  spirit  friends  who 
take  upon  themselves  the  pleasurable  duty  to  accom- 
pany them  through  their  life  journey;  one  of  these, 
where  there  is  more  than  one,  assumes  the  duty  of  be- 
coming your  guardian  spirit  (Socrates  Demon). 
Now,  if  you  should  possess  strong  psychic  forces  your 
familiar  spirit  can,  at  times,  use  those  forces  for  your 
benefit,  such  as  impressing  you  of  danger,  removing 
pain,  etc.  Sometimes  they  accomplish  this  by  means 
of  vivid  dreams;  in  fact,  they  resort  to  all  the  means 
at  their  command  to  accomplish  their  end. 

Now,  what  would  be  the  result  of  a  case  of  this  kind 
where  the  Christian  Scientist  kneels  in  prayer  with 
one  who  was  entirely  ignorant  of  the  simple  truth,  and 
has  been  taught  that  God  was  a  being?  The  pa- 
tient, being  sick,  and  also  a  sensitive  to  spirit  forces 
(although  unaware  of  the  fact),  there  also'  being  some 
one  member  of  the  Christian  band  of  scientists  present 
who  is  positive  to  the  patient  and  mediumistic,  the 
spirit  friends  of  the  invalid  use  the  two  forces  to  effect 
a  cura    The  patient  knows  that  he  felt  some  peculiar 


(  246  ) 

force  at  work  on  his  anatomy,  and  not  being  able  to 
account  for  it,  he  jumps  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  a 
miracle,  and  if  a  miracle,  then  nothing  but  a  God 
could  have  done  it.  Alas,  alas  for  the  credulity  of 
human  nature!  If  the  Christian  Scientists  are  right 
in  their  belief,  allow  us  to  ask,  in  a  spirit  of  fairness, 
why  do  they  not  cure  all,  as  this  personal  God  of  theirs 
is  all  power?  Why  do  they  often  cure  the  so-called 
wicked  and  undeserving  and  fail  to  cure  the  just  and 
chosen  ones — the  preachers,  for  instance,  or  them- 
selves? Why  do  they  succeed  in  curing  one  disease 
on  John  eTones  and  fail  to  cure  another  and  apparent- 
ly insignificant  disease  on  this  same  John  Jones?  Let 
the  Christian  Scientists  and  "  Holy  Bones  "  explain 
this  in  a  rational  manner. 

Our  explanation  is  this :  The  human  body  is  mechan- 
ically constructed  by  a  uniting  of  two  or  more  atoms 
of  matter  together  for  a  purpose;  this  produces  an 
organ.  Then  two  or  more  atoms  again  come  together 
in  the  same  object  for  another  purpose;  this  produces 
organism,  for  you  must  understand  that  it  is  not  an 
organ  or  an  organism  until  at  least  two  atoms  come 
together  and  establish  a  battery  of  the  positive  and 
negative.  Right  at  this  point,  by  the  joining  of  the  two 
units  or  atom  lives,  is  produced  or  is  born  a  life  over 
the  two  atom  lives  which  we  have  designated  the  first 
over-life.  This  may  be  a  human  life,  apple  life,  or  a 
mineral  life,  and,  in  this  first  condition,  it  may 
continue  for  ages  and  ages  before  an  opportunity  pre- 
sents itself  for  any  further  progress. 

That  you  may  fully  understand  us,  we  will  elucidate 
it  thus:   Richard  joins  his  resources  with  John  and 


(247  ) 

thereby  forms  an  organized  one  hody  for  a  precon- 
ceived purpose ;  they  have  a  set  of  laws  to  govern  this 
hody,  which  is  the  over-life  of  this  body.  Now  this* 
over-life  or  organized  body  can  go  on  increasing  its 
membership  for  the  mutual  benefit  of  the  whole  over- 
life.  Some  of  the  members  become  obstreperous  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  be  felt  by  the  whole  body  (i.  e.  dis- 
eased). The  organization  {body)  seeks  to  apply  a 
remedy.  Now,  whether  this  remedy  shall  be  success- 
ful or  not  depends  on  the  nature  of  the  disease  affect- 
ing the  sub-organization.  It  may  be,  as  in  the  first 
cure,  of  such  a  nature  as  to  be  easily  subdued,  and 
again,  it  may  have  been  so  quietly  at  work,  like  some 
seditions  of  state,  as  to  be  beyond  control.  If  it  was  a 
miracle  in  the  first  cure,  why  does  not  the  miracle  suc- 
ceed in  the  second  case? 

How  much  more  rational  to  say  that  God  or  life 
accomplishes  its  work  in  this  way.  Take  the  people 
of  darkest  Africa,  for  instance.  The  civilized  or 
spiritually  inclined  and  advanced  nations  of  the  earth, 
by  a  constant  and  continued  unity,  are  throwing  their 
persuasive  powers  on  this  people ;  not  only  with  guns 
and  powder,  but  by  examples  of  Christianity,  in  at- 
tending their  sick  and  those  wounded  in  war  and  by 
the  conscientious  services  of  the  true  missionary. 
You  will  perceive  that,  slowly,  this  is  having  its  sav- 
ing effect.  All  such  moves  require  time.  Man,  in  his 
eagerness  to  rush  ahead,  is  inclined  to  ignore  time, 
while  time  ignores  not  anything,  not  even  the  atom. 

Of  what  avail  is  one  man's  voice  or  desire  in  your 
Congress?  'T  is  but  a  drop  in  the  bucket.  But  apply 
the  voice  of  the  united  whole  of  these  atoms  (people) ! 


(  248  ) 

'T  was  they  who  produced  your  Congress,  and,  in  like 
manner,  they  (the  atoms)  produced  your  God  (Life). 
►Man,  in  fact,  is  a  God,  if  he  only  knew  it,  and  of  which 
he  may  get  at  least  a  glimpse  when  viewed  in  this  man- 
ner. 

As  the  various  nations  constitute  the  whole  world, 
and  it  would  not  be  complete  without  all^  so  also  the 
single  nation  would  not  be  complete  without  the  single 
individual  that  comprises  its  whole;  nor  would  the 
individual  or  person  be  complete  without  the  entire 
number  of  atoms  that  constitute  his  entire  being. 
Therefore,  we  will  suggest  to  you  that  you,  in  your 
mind,  separate  each  individual  atom  that  constitutes 
the  entire  earth  and  give  to  them  their  freedom  by  tak- 
ing away  the  individual  atom's  power  to  attract.  This 
you  will  have  to  do,  for  not  one  or  a  dozen  are  the 
whole  earth. 

Now,  let  us  ask,  where  would  your  boasted  power  of 
the  earth  be?  Is  not  each  single  atom  a  power  within 
itself?  Did  it  not  come  from  out  of  space  tO'  join  an- 
other atom?  And  was  it  not  by  this  very  addition  of 
one  atom  at  a  time  lending  its  proportion-share  of 
force  and  intelligence  and  matter  that  constitutes  and 
is  our  earth?  Do  you  not  see  that  it  is  this  very  prin- 
ciple of  a  unity  of  the  units,  and  this  alone,  that  pro- 
duces all  of  your  life  and  over-life?  Is  it  not  the 
single  individual  soldier  (the  unit)  that  makes  up 
your  powerful  army?  Or  the  one  single  stone,  united 
to  another,  that  constitutes  your  great  pyramid? 
Now,  please  apply  this  principle  of  accumulative 
force,  matter,  and  thought  to  the  universe  of  a  wheel 
within  a  wheel,  ad  infinitum.  Does  it  not  convey  you 
outside  of  all  human  comprehension? 


(  249  ) 

Let  your  imagination  (for  at  this  point  you  have 
no  other  evidence)  conceive  of  all  the  accumulated  es- 
sence of  all  the  various  systems  of  sun-circles  within 
sun  circles,  as  we  have  illustrated  them  elsewhere. 
Would  not  this  immense  outer  sphere  truly  represent 
th-^  very  greatest,  the  last,  and  the  end  of  all  concen- 
trated life,  energy,  force,  intelligence,  and  wisdom? 
Here  is  something — a  God^  a  life — that  man  can  grasp, 
his  mind  can  realize — a  something  that  you  know 
does  exist;  you  are  able  to  recognize  it  in  a  tangible 
manner  by  its  effect  on  matter.  Now,  draw  you  a 
comparison  with  that  mythological  person,  being, 
thing,  or  idea  that  came  out  of  nothing.  "  E^v  nihilOy 
nihil  fit,'' 

If  this  is  good  logic  or  philosophy — that  because  1 
know  I  am,  I  must  be  the  results  of  a  cause.  Well,  to 
accommodate  you  we  will  say  granted,  and  see  where 
it  leads  us.  Why,  to  a  first  cause  of  a  purely  mystical 
God.  Then,  by  your  own  argument,  if  God  is  a  being 
and  exists,  he  must  have  come  from  a  cause;  for  out 
of  nothing,  nothing  comes.  If  this  is  logic  or  common 
sense,  then  we  have  mistaken  the  meaning  of  common 
sense. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  limited  amount  of 
real  knowledge  those  old  medieval  godmakers,  Bible- 
builders,  whale-producers,  ark  stories,  pancake  world, 
with  its  seventh  day  or  holy  river  of  Josephus  thrown 
in,  with  a  Moses  who  buried  his  own  body,  and  then 
returned  to  write  about  it,  would  it  be  any  wonder  if 
this  same  Moses,  gifted  as  he  would  have  been  with 
such  miraculous  power,  should  go  a  step  farther  and 
utter  a  still  more  brazen  lie  to  a  people  gifted  with 


(  250  ) 

such  extraordinary  credulity,  and  declare  he  had 
spoken  face  to  face  with  a  man-made  Godf 

Can  you  blame  Huxley  for  doing  a  little  creating 
on  his  own  line  when  he  creates  life  from  a  dead  lob- 
ster by  transferring  it  to  a  live  man?  And  then,  when 
he  finds  himself  in  the  same  dilemma  as  these  ancient 
God-builders — such  as  nothing  can  from  nothing  come 
— he,  like  these  same  ancient  Bible-builders,  reverses 
his  engine  and  creates  life  again  by  transferring  the 
dead  man  to  the  live  lobster. 

In  those  days  it  was.  Believe  what  I  say,  or  follow 
Joan  of  Arc,  Bruno,  and  others  to  the  stake.  But  as 
no  such  conditions  as  those  now  confront  us,  we  may 
be  permitted  to  ask  Mr.  Huxley's  admirers  if  they 
would  kindly  be  a  little  more  previous  and  inform  us 
where  the  lobster  got  its  life  before  man  existed,  and 
where  man  got  his  life  before  the  lobster  existed.  If 
it  be  so  that  out  of  nothing  nothing  comes,  then  it 
would  appear  to  us  as  but  a  fair  postulate  that  what 
w^as  good  evidence  for  the  goose  should  be  equally  as 
good  for  the  gander. 

What  a  pity  it  was  that  those  old  Bible-builders 
were  not  better  informed  as  regards  the  size  of  the 
Dog-star  and  the  probable  extent  of  infinite  space. 
Now  please  consider  this  problem :  0  plus  0  equals  0 ; 
0  multiplied  by  0  equals  0 ;  0  minus  0  equals  0 ;  0  di- 
vided by  0  equals  0.  This  is  an  immutable  law  of  life 
and  matter,  and  a  rational,  consistent,  and  compre- 
hensive God.  You  of  the  twentieth  century  have  done 
what  they  should  have  done — i.  e.  you  do  not  create 
anything,  but  assert  that  neither  the  spirits  nor  mor- 
tal can  account  for  life  or  matter.    But  you  all  know 


(251  ) 

that  they  exist;  we  have  the  tangible,  absolute,  real- 
istic facts  to  sustain  our  assertion — it  is  not  at  all 
necessary  to  force  your  belief  toith  burning  fagots. 

From  whence  they  came  or  how  far  in  the  past  they 
have  existed  is,  from  its  (life)  very  nature,  an  utterly 
unknowable  question.  And  as  we  see  that  life  pos- 
sesses all  the  attributes  of  an  imaginary  ,personal 
God,  except  the  power  to  create  ( a  so-called  act  which 
has  never  yet  been  proven),  we  will  lay  the  two  propo- 
sitions before  you  for  a  fair  and  reasonable  opinion : 
thus,  I  know  that  I  am  because  I  exist ;  upon  examin- 
ing myself,  I  find  that  I  am  composed  of  atoms  of 
matter,  and  that  these  atoms  possess  life.  I  now  seek 
to  know  the  source  and  composition  of  this  life.  All 
that  I  can  learn  is  that  it  is  not  a  physical  thing,  but, 
as  far  as  reason  can  go  in  the  past,  it  always  existed, 
I  know  it  is  the  power  and  intelligence  that  produces 
and  controls  all  matter.  As  to  what  it  is  and  whence 
it  came,  I  do  not  know.    This  is  human  reason. 

And  now  for  the  old  proposition — I  know  that  I  am 
because  I  exist;  and  as  I  know  that  out  of  nothing 
nothing  comes,  then  I  will  trace  the  cause  of  my  exist- 
ence from  some  other  cause,  which  compels  me  to 
again  seek  a  cause.  Like  Huxley,  I  find  myself  in  a 
dilemma.  Now,  how  will  I  extract  myself?  I  will  do 
it  thus :  There  must  be  a  great  personal  being,  a  God, 
(must  he  is  good,  very  good,  indeed,)  and,  naturally, 
a  mechanical  God,  who  always  existed.  (Ahem, 
ahem!)  About  six  thousand  years  ago,  for  the  first 
time,  this  mechanical  God  awakes.  How  far  back  in 
the  millions  of  past  ages  this  God  lay  sleeping  only  he 
can  say.     But  he  instantly  realizes  his  miraculous 


(  252  ) 

power  to  overcome  this  naught  plus  naught  equals 
naught,  naught  multiplied  by  naught  equals  naught, 
naught  minus  naught  equals  naught,  and  create  it 
thus :  Naught  minus  naught  equals  one.  These  same 
ancients  found  that  this  one  is  also  endowed  with  mi- 
raculous power — hence  he,  the  one  created,  is  a  Holy 
Ghost.  Just  what  kind  of  a  ghost  that  is  or  how  they 
found  him  out,  deponent  sayeth  not,  as  no  one  has 
ever  seen  this  thing,  gentleman  or  holy,  sufficiently 
plain  to  know  it.  Ghosts  there  may  be,  but  just  what 
distinguishing  ear-marks  exist  between  this  holy  and 
a  common  ghost,  we  know  not.  However,  prudence, 
my  friend,  is  sometimes  (especially  in  olden  times)  a 
virtue,  and  if  you  do  not  know,  then  believe  or  be 
damned,  like  Bruno  and  others  (while  I  '11  be  damned 
if  I  believe) . 

Modern  phenomena  in  the  last  half  century  have 
produced  a  tangible  ghost  (spirit) — tens  of  thousands 
of  them ;  not  in  an  obscure  burning  bush,  but  over  all 
the  civilized  world  where  an  ordinary  man  can  see, 
feel,  and  hear  them,  and  where  you  are  at  perfect  lib- 
erty to  judge  from  the  evidence  of  your  own  senses — 
and  no  fear  of  being  damned,  either. 

And  now,  my  friend,  we  have  placed  the  two  views 
squarely  before  you.  It  is  for  you  to  exercise  your 
own  common  sense  and  decide,  as  any  fair  and  im- 
partial juror  should  do,  as  to  which  is  the  true  meta- 
physical solution. 


(  253  ) 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

WHAT  ARE  LIFE  AND  MATTER  COMPOSED  OF? 

( September  7th. ) 

Is  it  possible  for  you  to  cross  the  dead-line  and  tell 
me  what  life  and  matter  are  composed  of?  And  if  not, 
can  you  give  me  a  reasonable  conjecture? 

Through  this  entire  work,  from  its  beginning  up  to 
the  present  time,  little  by  little,  as  the  opportunity 
offered,  have  we  endeavored  to  shed  such  light  upon 
the  above  question  as  you  could  receive  and  digest. 
It  may  be  possible  for  us  to  go  a  step  farther.  We  will 
see. 

In  our  last  article,  we  frequently  capitalized  the 
term  Unit.  Now  we  will  ask  you  to  try  to  realize  how 
exceedingly  small  and  apparently  insignificant  a  thing 
a  unit  is.  As  we  have  before  stated,  it  is  the  next 
thing  to  nothing.  And,  while  those  old  ancient  Bible- 
builders  shot  closer  to  the  mark  than  they  at  the  time 
dreamed  of  when  they  produced  their  ghost  of  a  para- 
dox to  provide  a  base  of  retreat  when  pressed  too  hard 
for  an  answer, — i.  e.  their  "  Ex  nihilo,  niJiili  fit,^^ — and 
as  science  has  long  since  acknowledged  that  matter  is 
indestructihle, — which  is  to  acknowledge  that  it  has 
no  end, — now,  does  not  your  own  common  sense  teach 
you  that  a  thing  that  has  no  end  could  not  have  a  be- 


(  254  ) 

ginning?  If  this  be  the  truth, — and  we  think  it  is, 
does  it  not  carry  you  into  the  infinite?  Hence  it  is  un- 
knowable— the  dead-line. 

Now,  please  consider:  Is  not  this  explanation  in 
perfect  harmony  with  the  philosophy  of  "  Out  of  noth- 
ing,  noithing  comes?  " 

We  will  explain  it  in  this  way :  While  the  unit  or 
atom  did  not  come  from  nothing^  yet  it  was  the  very 
next  thing  to  nothing — i.  e.  life  and  matter ;  and  while 
in  this  state  of  a  single  unit  it  is  of  far  less  importance 
as  a  thing  of  power  than  is  one  single  drop  of  water  to 
the  mighty  ocean.  That  you  may  grasp  this,  we  will 
say  that  it  is  a  million  times  less  than  a  drop  of  water, 
as  one  drop  of  water  is  divided  into  many  more  parts 
than  a  million.    The  explanation  is  found  in  the  Unity. 

You  are  accustomed  to  exercise  your  reason  from  a 
physical  thing — an  object.  Long  habit  of  considering 
that — only  that — which  you  see  is  real  has  beclouded 
your  better  judgment.  We  have  endeavored  to  teach 
you  (and  we  know  that  we  have  succeeded)  that  the 
reverse  is  the  real  fact. 

Now,  if  you  will  take  this  one  single  atom  and  fol- 
low it  on  its  journey  as  we  have  described  it  in  the 
article  headed  "  The  First  Eealization  of  Life  in 
Space,"  and  at  the  same  time  keep  in  your  mind  its 
almost  utter  insignificance,  when  you  try  to  recognize 
it  as  an  existing  tiling.  Then  consider  this  one,  single, 
infinite  atom  as  the  very  first  cause  of  all  causation 
(if  there  ever  was  a  first  cause).  Now,  you  have  but 
to  change  one  Biblical  word  that  reads,  "  In  the  he- 
ginning  was  God,"  and  let  it  read,  "  in  the  beginning 
was  an  atom/'   Then  you  will  see  all  necessity  for  any 


(  265  ) 

belief  whatever  or  subterfuge  to  hide  your  ignorance 
of  the  simple  truth  is  swept  away.  Man  has  been 
wrongly  taught  that  that  which  was  created  cannot  be 
greater  than  the  creator. 

This  is  a  false  and  pernicious  doctrine,  and  should 
be  corrected,  as  it  only  leads  the  young  investigator 
into  those  false  roads  which,  in  turn,  lead  to  false 
Gods.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  create;  and  it  should 
have  been  left,  by  accident  or  design,  in  Noah's  ark. 
To  create  is  to  produce  some  thing  out  of  nothing — an 
absurdity  that  any  one  claiming  a  modern  education 
should  be  ashamed  to  acknowledge.  It  has  the  ten- 
dency to  cause  the  young  student  to  infer  that  that 
which  was  built  or  produced  cannot  be  greater  than 
the  builder  or  producer.  Now,  what  a  false  position 
such  a  conclusion  would  leave  the  student  in!  He 
would  find  himself  utterly  unfitted  for  an  inventor. 

Are  not  all  objective  things  or  organisms  produced 
or  built  up  from  the  very  least  of  all  things,  the  atom? 

Man  and  spirit  can  only  recognize  life  and  matter 
when  in  a  vast,  accumulated  form  of  unity ,  and  then 
very  imperfectly.  You  cannot  see,  smell,  taste,  touch, 
or  hear  either  life  or  force.  You  recognize  them  by  a 
certain  effect  that  they  produce  on  matter.  Habit 
makes  you  say,  "  I  felt  the  force  of  a  blow," — but  you 
are  wrong.    You  felt  the  effect  or  saw  the  change. 

By  removing  the  life,  you  have  no  force.  Now,  if 
you  could  instantly  remove  the  life  of  all  the  atoms 
of  your  body,  that  moment  your  body  would  vanish, 
disappear,  leaving  not  even  a  sign  of  its  existence, 
so  fine  would  be  the  atomic  division.  It  is  the  power 
derived  from  the  atomic  life  that  holds  your  body  and 


(  256  ) 

all  other  objects  together.  This  is  as  far  as  we  can 
assist  your  understanding  as  regards  life,  until  later 
on.     ( See  Chapter  XXXVII— the  key. ) 

And  now  as  to  matter.  We  would  say  you  may  be 
able  to  delve  deeper  into  the  subject  possibly,  if  viewed 
in  this  manner.  Here  we  find  for  the  first  time,  in  this 
little  volume,  that  we  are  obliged  to  put  forward  an 
assumption,  a  priori,  and  will  caution  you  at  this 
point  that  we  only  do  so  in  our  great  desire  to  assist 
you  in  your  endeavors  to  reach  beyond  the  dead-line, 
or  into  the  infinite.  Hence  we  shall  expect  you  to 
receive  it  only  as  an  opinion;  for  you  must  remember 
that  all  beliefs  are  but  shadowy  forms  arising  on  the 
horizon  of  truth,  and  until  proven  true,  must  be  han- 
dled with  care. 

Matter  is  the  offspring  or  effect  of  life;  it  is  the 
expression  of  life,  or  life  expressed.  Take  away  the 
life,  which  means  the  energy,  force,  motion,  and  intel- 
ligence, and  what  have  you  left?  Virtually  nothing, 
or  a  thing  so  near  akin  to  nothing — so  far  at  least  as 
human  understanding  goes — as  to  be  unrecognizable. 
And  if  it  did  not  cease  to  exist  entirely,  then  infinite 
space  would  be  filled  with  a  chaotic,  inert  mass  of 
atomic  dust.  While  your  human  senses  cannot  grasp 
life,  physically  speaking,  life  itself  has  prepared  the 
way  for  its  own  recognition  by  producing  in  man 
(matter),  through  the  unity  of  atoms,  your  so-called 
five  physical  senses;  and  it  is  by  your  power  to  me- 
chanically apply  these  senses  to  matter,  which  you 
cannot  do  to  life,  that  you  are  made  aware  of  the  exist- 
ence and  power  of  life — ^i.  e.  thought,  force,  and  sub- 
stance. 


(257) 

Now,  imagine  yourself  standing  in  space,  ten  mil- 
lions of  miles  from  any  object  excepting  light.  Here 
you  find — what?  Apparently  nothing.  And  yet  you 
are  for  the  first  time  in  your  physical  existence  sur- 
rounded by  that  only  which  is  real  in  its  first  and  orig- 
inal form — i.  e.  the  elementary  atoms  of  substance. 
You  have  asked  us.  What  is  matter  composed  of?  As 
far  as  you  of  the  earth  have  investigated  it,  you  have 
declared  it  to  be  composed  of  sixty-five  different  sub- 
stances ;  and,  whether  it  be  more  or  less,  it  is  sufficient 
for  our  purpose. 

You  are  now  standing  in  w^hat  seems  to  you  a  void ; 
yet  you  have  at  this  moment  all  about  you  the  very 
essence  of  all  these  various  substances — iron,  tin,  oxy- 
gen, etc.,  and  we  can  only  answer  you  that  they  are 
just  what  you  have  called  them.  'T  is  only  a  name. 
We  might  offer  you  another  name,  but  it  would  con- 
vey no  other  truth ;  and,  as  we  have  frequently  stated, 
we  agree  with  Immanuel  Kant,  that  your  world  and 
all  objective  matter  therein  is  not  the  real^  first,  and 
unchangeable  state  of  matter.  It  (your  world)  is 
only  matter  on  a  mission  or  journey,  the  same  as  an 
apple  or  soap-bubble.  For  a  little  while  you  seem  to  see 
it,  and  then  you  don't.  It  is  like  the  clouds.  Vast 
quantities  of  atoms  of  oxygen  and  hydrogen  unite  for 
a  purpose  out  of  the  invisible,  do  their  work,  and 
again  disappear — return,  we  may  say,  to  their  real 
home  or  condition — a  mere  passing  event. 

Hence,  you  will  see  that  it  is  but  a  w^aste  of  time  to 
even  try  to  penetrate  the  infinite.  Therefore,  to  be 
candid  with  you,  we  are  obliged  to  call  it  the  Dead- 
Line. 


(  258  ) 

(February  20,  1898.) 

[About  five  months  later,  or  on  February  20,  1898, 
I  again  asked  the  question,  "  What  is  life? ''  forget- 
ting that  I  had  already  asked  the  question.  Hence  I 
insert  it  here.  The  reader  will  observe  that  it  is  a  con- 
tinuation of  this  chapter. — C.  H.  Foster.] 

This  is  a  question  so  vague  and  yet  so  far-reaching 
that  we  feel  as  though  we  should  be  allowed  consider- 
able charity  if  our  words  shall  not  come  up  to  your  ex- 
pectation, and  shall  deal  with  the  question  after  our 
own  peculiar  idea  of  free  thought;  and,  if  we  shall 
succeed  in  furnishing  you  with  any  new  light  on  the 
subject,  we  will  be  pleased,  indeed. 

First — It  has  been  the  prevailing  custom  of  intel- 
lectual minds  to  say  that  they  recognize  the  existence 
of  life  by  its  effect  on  matter.  Now,  is  this  a  fact?  Do 
they  recognize  life  or  do  they  recognize  thought  and 
force?  Has  the  word  "  recognized  "  a  double  mean- 
ing? That  is,  do  they  mean  that  they  know,  or  do  they 
mean  that  they  helieve  that  such  a  thing  as  life  exists? 
If  they  know  it  for  a  demonstrated  fact,  through  or  by 
the  evidence  of  one  or  more  of  the  five  physical  senses, 
as  a  scientific  truth,  where  is  their  evidence?  As  they 
are  always  very  particular  to  demand  physical  evi- 
dence of  the  truth  of  any  phenomena  brought  to  their 
notice,  they  should  not  object  to  the  same  rule  being 
applied  to  themselves. 

It  will  not  do  for  them  to  make  an  assertion  on  their 
own  responsibility  that  they  know  that  life  exists,  as 
it  is  recognized  in  all  so-called  living  things.  This 
would  be  begging  the  question;   for,  as  there  is  no 


(  259  ) 

dead,  then  all  things  must  be  alive,  and  it  would  still 
leave  the  question  open — What  is  life? 

When  they  use  the  terMi  Life,  they  surely  must 
mean  something.  They  tell  you  that  this  man's  life 
has  gone  out,  departed — he  or  it  is  dead.  Gone  out 
means  to  move,  or  it  could  not  have  departed.  Now 
we  will  ask  them  what  kind  of  a  thing  it  was  that  had 
motion.  Death  is  supposed  to  be  (i.  e.  believed  to  be) 
the  opposite  to  life ;  and  as  it  is  with  that  which  men 
call  life  so  it  is  with  death — ^you  have  no  actual  knowl- 
edore  of  the  existence  of  either  the  one  or  the  other. 

You  smile  at  the  simplicity  of  the  sun-worshiper. 
He  recognizes  that,  for  a  time,  he  exists,  when  sudden- 
ly he  ceases  to  exist.  He  sees  the  part  the  sun  seems 
to  play  in  nature.  It  is  a  great  something  of  infinite 
power  that  he  can  sense  by  his  sight  and  feeling; 
therefore,  he  believes  he  knows  that  the  sun  is  the 
cause  of  his  existence.  He,  in  his  turn,  smiles  at  you 
when  you  speak  of  life,  and  asks  you  what  you  know 
about  it.  You  answer  him,  "  Nothing — absolutely 
nothing,"  but  that  joii  believe,  from  what  you  know  of 
thought,  that  something  must  have  caused  thought 
and  so  you  have  given  this  imaginary  something,  this 
must  have  been,  the  name  of  life ;  and  continuing  your 
reply  to  him,  you  say,  "After  all,  my  dear  fellow, 
don't  you  know  that  I  don't  know  for  a  fact,  whether 
this  imaginary  thing  which  we  call  life  is  a  condition, 
a  place,  a  thing  or  a  circumstance."  Alas,  poor  La- 
place! we  wonder  after  all  if  his  great  sun  was  any 
greater  as  a  truth  than  this  same  sun- worshiper's  sun 
on  a  smaller  scale. 


(  260  ) 

Thought  you  can  for  a  known  fact  assert  does 
have  an  actual  physical  existence,  and  is  capable  of 
demonstration  as  a  thing,  for  it  is  now  acknowledged 
that  it  can  be  transferred  from  one  individual  to  an- 
other and  to  a  great  distance.  You  have  also  the 
power  to  depress  or  stimulate  it  and  can  demonstrate 
to  a  certain  extent  its  quantity  and  quality;  there- 
fore, it  is  not  in  any  sense  an  imaginary  thing,  though 
it  is  the  actual  dead-line  or  limit  of  human  compre- 
hension. 

You  Tvill  perceive  by  these  remarks  that  Life  is  but 
a  name.  The  credulous  call  it  God,  and  some  even  go 
so  far  as  to  call  it  a  personal  being.  Agnostics  call  it 
Nature,  and  we  might  ask  them,  what  is  Nature? 
Spiritualists  call  it  the  Great  Spirit.  We  have,  for 
the  sake  of  a  point  of  departure,  called  it  Life,  or 
Over-Life ;  but,  after  all  is  said,  't  is  but  a  name,  and, 
w^e  may  add,  an  imaginary  one,  for  nothing  is  known 
to  have  an  actual  existence  beyond  thought. 

And  now,  my  dear  friend,  we  do  not  wish  to  be 
understood  as  denying  the  existence  of  a  something 
still  greater  and  far  more  superior  than  thought,  for 
that  would  be  to  undo  all  of  that  which  we  have  at- 
tempted to  do  by  this  little  volume;  and  we  do  know 
that  it  is  on  and  on  far  beyond  the  lower  spirit  com- 
prehension where  more  knowledge  is  gained,  but 
where  that  knowledge  ends.  //  it  has  an  end,  we  must 
truthfully  say  we  do  not  know.  Our  object  in  writing 
this  chapter  was  to  try  and  have  you  realize  that  Life 
was  but  a  name,  and  means  to  represent  the  very  es- 
sence of  cause,  and  to  further  show  you  that,  whatever 
it  wa«,  from  its  very  nature  it  was  infinite,  and  for 


(  261) 

man  to  say  that  he  recognizes  Life  by  its  effect  on  mat- 
ter is  only  an  endeavor  on  his  part  to  escape  the  use 
of  the  term  belief. 

By  these  few  additional  remarks,  however,  we  hope 
that  you  will  more  fully  realize  the  utter  impossi- 
bility of  Mr.  Huxley  or  any  other  scientist  being  able 
to  put  forward  as  a  scientific  fact  that  they  possess 
any  knowledge  of  the  basis  of  Life.  Nor  do  we  ob- 
ject to  your  substituting  for  the  word  hasis^  physical 
basis;  for  until  man  knows  what  Life  is  composed  of, 
how  is  it  physically  possible  for  him  to  demonstrate 
its  physical  basis?  By  what  particular  earmarks, 
may  we  ask,  do  you  know  that  it  is  a  physical  thing? 
Have  we  not  the  scientific  right  to  demand  of  Mr. 
Huxley  that  he  shall  produce  his  unquestionable  proof 
that  Life  is  a  physical  thing  before  we  accept  his  as- 
sertion that  he  has  found  the  physical  basis  of  Life? 

PSYCHO-PHYSICS. 

You  will  perceive  that  after  physical  matter  has 
been  converted  into  spirit  atmosphere,  spirit,  or  im- 
ponderable matter,  by  its  passage  through  the  brain 
cells  as  thinky  that  this  matter  still  accompanies  your 
physical  body  through  its  earth  journey,  and  is,  in 
fact,  the  real  part  of  you — the  I  AM — and  at  this 
stage  it  is  gathering  other  matter  (thought),  as  well 
as  rejecting  matter  for  the  purpose  of  preparing  the 
way  for  yet  another  change,  when  it  shall  be  necessary 
to  separate  itself  from  the  physical  body  and  assume 
a  real  spirit  body.  While  this  matter  is  accompany- 
ing your  physical  body,  and  before  it  leaves  this  body 
to  become  a  spirit,  is  it  not  at  this  time  in  an  inter- 


(  262  ) 

mediate  state?  i.  e.  it  is  not  what  you  can  properly 
call  physical  matter;  neither  has  it  advanced  into 
either  the  real  spirit  or  soul  condition  (the  metaphy- 
sical ) .  Yet  it  is  now  generally  acknowledged  by  your 
French  and  German  scientists,  through  their  experi- 
ments with  hypnotism  and  lunacy,  as  an  existing  con- 
dition apart  from  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain. 

Now,  conceive  of  this  matter  as  occupying  the 
bridge  which  we  have  frequently  mentioned  in  our 
former  remarks  as  that  which  spanned  the  chasm 
lying  between  the  ponderable  and  imponderable 
world.  You  could  not  say  that  it  was  physical,  nor 
could  you  call  it  metaphysical.  Then  would  it  not 
exist  as  a  psycho-physical  matter,  operating  in  a"  field 
of  fluid  far  finer  than  any  ether  that  man  at  present 
has  any  knowledge  of,  and,  of  which  we  have  before 
hinted,  as  yet  to  be  harnessed  for  the  benefit  of  man? 
Psycho-physical,  or  between  the  ttvo  worlds. 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  SEX. 

At  what  point  in  time  does  sex  begin?  In  answer- 
ing this  question,  that  you  may  fully  and  clearly  un- 
derstand us,  we  are  obliged  to  again  appeal  to  your 
forbearance  while  we  take  a  retrospective  view  of 
some  of  the  fundamental  precepts  which  we  have  al- 
ready established. 

Your  soul,  spirit,  or  the  I  AM  of  you,  is  entirely  in- 
dependent of  your  physical  body.  Your  body,  or  any 
other  physical  body,  is  composed  of  the  original 
elementary  atoms  of  matter  or  substance.  This  mat- 
ter is  void  of  sex,  and  assumes  the  same  position  and 
respoi     bility  in  your  body  or  any  other  physical 


(  263  ) 

body  as  the  single  brick  in  a  building — simply  as  so 
much  matter  in  bulk,  and  nothing  more.  You  will 
probably  understand  us  better  when  we  call  your  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  your  body  is  composed  of  oxy- 
gen, iron,  sulphur,  and  other  simple  substances.  Now, 
you  will  not  contend  that  the  atoms  of  iron,  oxygen, 
etc.,  are  male  and  female;  nor  can  you  with  any  de- 
gree of  reason  attribute  sex  to  any  of  the  sixty-five 
simple  substances  that  enter  into  the  composition  of 
any  physical  object  or  organism,  and,  as  we  have  be- 
fore stated,  all  physical  matter  must  become  an  organ- 
ism of  at  least  two  atoms  before  it  can  become  an 
object.  No  one  tiling  alone  can  of  itself  he  an  organ- 
ized body.  If  so,  how  would  you  proceed  to  disorgan- 
ize it? 

At  first  the  soul,  or  I  AM,  of  the  germ  is  as  unim- 
portant and  insignificant,  if  we  may  be  excused  for 
using  the  expression  as  the  germ  of  the  object  itself ; 
but  as  other  atoms  are  attracted  to  the  object,  it  rises 
in  importance,  and  in  just  the  same  ratio  does  the 
value  of  the  I  AM  increase.  Though  many  of  the  old 
school  of  scientists  are  inclined  to  sneer  at  the  occult 
or  spirit  of  things,  and  would  have  you  accept  Mr. 
Huxley's  idea  of  the  protoplasm  as  the  physical  basis 
of  Life,  yet  how  can  they  deny  that  organism  begins 
where  we  have  shown?  Again,  we  will  ask  these  old- 
school  scientists.  Are  these  first  two  atoms,  when  they 
come  together,  in  the  physical  or  metaphysical  state? 
As  matter  or  substance,  they  cannot  be  soul  or  spirit. 
You  have  the  elephant  on  your  hands,  gentlemen ;  vv^ill 
you  receive  it  as  physical,  and  if  not,  would  it  not  be 
well  to  kill  it  and  feed  it  to  the  lobster?    Dispose  of  it 


(  264  ) 

you  must  in  some,  let  us  hope,  more  rational  manner. 
With  this  prelude  we  will  now  endeavor  to  answer 
your  question  of  sex. 

After  two  atoms  are  attracted  together,  this  is  the 
beginning  of  organism  or  organized  Life,  which  you 
may  better  understand  as  the  beginning  of  the  con- 
struction of  a  machine,  which  may  also  be  called  a 
beginning  of  the  physical  organism.  At  this  point 
the  law  of  positive  and  negative  first  asserts  its  au- 
thority over  matter;  if  the  positive  should  prove  the 
stronger  of  the  two,  then  the  sex  would  be  male;  but 
if  the  negative  atom  should  be  the  stronger,  then  the 
sex  would  be  female.  You  will  understand  that  sex 
cuts  no  figure  in  the  great  Over-soul  of  Life;  sex  is 
merely  a  part  of  the  physical  or  bodily  construction  of 
the  machine — the  same  as  the  arm,  the  eye,  or  the 
color  of  the  hair,  etc.,  and  merely  has  its  functions  to 
perform  as  one  part  of  the  organization. 

While  we  use  the  terms  positive  and  negative  at 
this  stage  of  our  explanation,  it  is  because  they  are 
the  most  comprehensive  words  that  we  can  make  use 
of  to  fit  this  almost  insignificant  stage  of  a  human 
soul,  and  we  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  implying 
that  the  female  from  this  time  on  remains  in  the  nega- 
tive condition.  You  will  remember  that  at  this  point 
you  have  but  two  single  atoms  of  matter  to  consider — 
the  very  dawn  of  a  human  life  or  organism.  You  must 
look  at  it  in  this  light :  that  as  the  negative  principle 
predominates  at  the  beginning,  it  will  naturally  have 
the  controlling  influence  during  the  travels  of  that 
body  in  its  earth  development;  but  as  it  takes  on 
other  atoms,  the  preponderance  of  influence  of  these 


(  265  ) 

innumerable  atoms  may  be  positive.  Hence  this  fe- 
male, when  developed  as  a  fully  formed  human  body, 
may  assume  the  positive  relation  between  man  and 
wife,  or  what  you  may  call  a  very  pronounced  or  com- 
bative woman,  and  this  law  will  apply  to  the  male. 
How  very  frequently  you  meet  with  effeminate  men 
and  masculine  women! 

Does  this  germ  first  attach  itself  to  the  male  or  fe- 
male in  seeking  an  opportunity  to  unfold  or  advance? 
When  you  look  over  the  field  you  will  observe  that,  as 
a  rule,  the  male  is  by  long  odds  the  stronger  and  most 
positive  of  the  two.  This  is  a  part  of  the  natural  law 
of  life  and  is  partly  caused  by  the  first  germ  being  at- 
tracted to  the  male  in  its  first  effort  to  advance.  The 
ovum  is  only  a  place  of  habitation  to  protect  and 
nourish  this  incipient  germ.  Until  this  germ  enters 
the  grain  of  corn  after  it  is  planted  in  the  earth,  there 
is  no  quickening  process  takes  place;  in  fact,  this  is 
the  cause  of  quickening.  If  there  should  be  some 
serious  disaffection  of  the  organized  body  of  the  grain 
of  corn,  then  there  would  be  no  sympathetic  attrac- 
tion between  the  germ  and  the  grain,  and  hence  no  re- 
production. 

In  some  vegetables  this  is  effectd  by  the  pollen  of 
the  male  plant  being  conveyed  by  the  wind — such  as 
the  strawberry,  etc.,  the  blossom  acting  in  the  same 
capacity  to  the  strawberry  as  the  ovum  to  the  human 
organism.  Sterility  in  plants  or  animals  is  caused  by 
some  irregularity  in  the  organization  of  one  of  the 
parents  which  prevents  the  various  organs  from  per- 
forming their  allotted  work.  This  is  particularly 
noticeable  in  the  hybrids — the  mules,  for  instance. 


{  26Q  ) 

By  this  disarrangement  of  the  organs  some  parts  of 
the  whole  body  may  be  extra-invigorated  at  the  ex- 
pense of  some  other  part  of  the  body.  This  would  in- 
duce a  larger,  and  sometimes  stronger,  crop  from  the 
first  cross,  when,  by  trying  to  again  re-cross,  you  may 
find  complete  sterility.  This  depends  on  the  nature 
of  the  two  parents. 

You  will  find  that  this  same  law  will  apply  to  many 
of  the  metals.  Some  it  will  strengthen  while  others 
it  will  weaken,  and  in  other  alloys  they  will  refuse  to 
amalgamate  the  second  time;  that  is,  they  will  lose 
some  of  the  virtue  gained  by  the  first  compounding. 
It  not  infrequently  occurs  that  two  sets  of  the  first 
organized  germs  find  lodgment  in  the  same  ovum,  or 
blossom.  If  these  two  sets  of  organisms  should  be  in 
almost  perfect  harmony  with  each  other  and  the  ovum, 
or  blossom,  the  results  would  be  twins,  or  a  double 
fruit;  whereas,  if  inharmony  existed,  both  might  be 
rejected,  which  would  compel  them  to  again  seek  a 
more  favorable  opportunity  to  advance. 


(  267  ) 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

EDUCATED  MEDIUMS. 

In  looking  over  the  field  I  observe  that  at  least 
ninety  per  cent  of  the  mediums,  or  instruments  chosen 
by  the  spirits  to  serve  their  purpose,  are  from  the  mid- 
dle class  of  people,  and  seldom  from  those  highly  edu- 
cated.   Why  is  this  thus? 

You,  my  friend,  being  a  skilled  mechanic,  allow  us 
to  ask.  If  you  wish  to  perpetuate  your  skill  anc  aowl- 
edge  of  the  same  to  future  generations,  whom  would 
you  select  as  the  most  fitting  instrument  to  teach — 
one  who  had  passed  the  meridian  of  life  and  become 
hardened  and  set  in  his  ways,  and  whose  ideas  had 
become  fossilized  in  ignorance  of  those  secrets  in 
which  you  excel  ?  or  would  you  not  select  a  young  per- 
son whose  mind  was  susceptible  of  expansion,  one 
who  stood  to  you  in  a  negative  position,  and  whose 
ideas  had  not  yet  had  time  to  become  set? 

At  this  point  we  will  again  call  your  attention  to 
the  well-known  fact  that,  while  education  is  of  the  ut- 
most importance  to  mankind,  yet  it  has  its  undesir- 
able features  as  well ;  i.  e.  you  can  educate  a  parrot 
and  teach  a  pig,  etc.  By  this  we  would  be  understood 
as  implying  that  not  one  in  a  thousand  who  are  so 
completely  crammed  with  scholasticism  ever  rise  to 
a  Washington,  Lincoln,  Howe,  etc.  Why  is  this? 
We  will  tell  you. 


(  268  ) 

All  great  minds  are  horn  free,  and  not  made  so  by 
education  alone.  If  this  were  not  the  case,  why  do 
you  not  produce  a  greater  per  cent,  of  great  minds 
from  your  school  of  letters?  By  studying  the  early 
history  of  all  great  men,  you  will  find  that  in  their 
very  childhood  they  showed  a  disposition  to  rebel 
against  restraint  and  old-fogy  conventionality.  Their 
playmates  knew  them  as  odd  and  eccentric,  while 
kind  and  gentle,  as  a  rule ;  yet  they  wanted  to  be  free, 
to  follow  the  natural  bent  of  an  independent  soul. 
When  such  souls  as  these  pass  through  your  colleges 
they  never  sacrifice  their  independence  of  thought. 
While  paying  all  due  respect  to  their  teachers  and 
their  lessons,  yet  they  can  and  do  rise  above  all  teach- 
ings that  do  not  appeal  to  their  own  common  sense. 
To  tell  this  kind  of  a  mind  that  this  or  that  theory  is 
true,  because  all  the  old  professors,  your  own  father, 
and  your  priest  taught  it  years  and  years  before  your 
time,  will  not  be  accepted  by  them.  In  fact,  you  are 
well  aware  that  it  is  a  prevailing  custom  among  at 
least  three  fourths  of  your  teachers  to  early  impress 
upon  their  pupils,  either  in  scholasticism,  religion, 
politics,  or  mechanics,  that  to  deviate  from  the  old 
orthodox  custom  is  simply  sacrilegious,  and  not  to  be 
thought  of  for  a  moment. 

With  this  false  foundation  to  build  on,  begun  in  the 
family  in  their  very  infancy,  is  it  any  wonder  so  many 
young  minds — children  of  rich  parents  generally — go 
to  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  with  a  set  pur- 
pose of  securing  their  sheepskin  with  as  little  exertion 
to  themselves  as  may  be,  after  all  the  originality  that 
might  have  been  encouraged  to  blossom  had  been 


{  269  ) 

frowned  down  in  their  early  infancy,  thereby  causing 
the  budding  mind  to  become  indifferent  to  the  intrin- 
sic value  of  real  knowledge  of  common  sense?  This 
class  of  pupils  enter  your  colleges  already  prepared 
to  accept  any  old  thing  as  truth;  for  have  they  not 
already  been  schooled  at  home  or  at  Sunday-school 
that  it  is  heresy  to  deny  their  parents  or  priest.  We 
embrace  all  creeds  and  all  political  parties.  Why, 
't  is  even  said  among  you,  that  to  this  day  there  are 
still  to  be  found  men  in  Arkansas  who  never  fail  to 
cast  a  ballot  for  Andrew  Jackson  for  President! 
However,  we  do  not  vouch  for  the  truth  of  that. 

Having  now  prepared  the  way  that  we  might  be 
properly  understood,  we  will  answer  your  question 
in  this  manner :  A  large  majority  of  those  whom  you 
class  as  educated  received  such  an  education  as  a  mere 
automaton.  It  was  necessary  to  move  in  our  set  or  to 
go  to  Congress ;  in  fact,  we  should  be  able  to  explain 
to  Pa  how  Joshua  scientifically  stopped  the  sun  and 
how  Noah  brought  his  South  American  menagerie 
over  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  stock  his  ark.  When  you 
come  to  interview  this  class  of  people  on  what  they 
actually  knoiv  about  the  occult  science,  you  will  find 
that  they  have  very  little  to  spare;  yet  they  think  they 
know  it  all.  This  leaves  them  in  a  positive  condition 
to  such  an  extent  that  the  spirits  find  it  almost  im- 
possible to  approach  them  for  the  purpose  of  develop- 
ing their  psychic  forces — i.  e.  the  tone  of  the  light 
through  their  windows  would  be  colored  to  suit  their 
previous  set  ideas,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  if  we 
select  a  person  not  so  well  educated,  we  find  him 
much  more  easily  handled — that  is,  we  have  fewer 
false  gods  to  eradicate. 


(  270  ) 

Take  your  own  case,  for  instance.  You  will  remem- 
ber some  seven  years  ago,  when  we  were  giving  you  a 
series  of  independent  writing  seances  through  Mrs. 
Fairchild's  forces,  we  cautioned  you  not  to  look  at  any 
history  of  Egypt  while  we  were  engaged  in  the  writ- 
ings, as  you  would  bring  with  you  into  the  seance- 
room  such  a  positive  element  that  it  would  hinder  us 
from  writing  as  we  wished  to ;  that  is,  you  would  see 
something  in  some  history  which  might  not  be  entire- 
ly true.  This  would  become  seated  or  fixed  on  your 
mind,  and  as  we  drew  from  you  our  knowledge  of  Eng- 
lish and  other  forces,  as  well  as  from  the  medium, 
then  our  communication  would  be  colored  uncon- 
sciously by  your  thoughts.  After  we  were  through 
with  the  writings,  then  we  gave  you  permissioin  to 
compare  them  with  history ;  but  you  found  nothing  in 
any  history  about  the  canal  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
describing  to  you  until  a  few  months  ago,  when  you 
found  it  in  a  daily  paper. 

You  will  understand  that  one  of  the  greatest  diffi- 
culties the  spirits  have  to  contend  with  is  to  find  an 
instrument  of  intelligence^  yet,  at  the  same  time,  free 
from  a  priori  opinion.  Naturally,  education  brings  in 
its  train  a  more  or  less  fiwed  opinion.  This  is  not  so 
easily  overcome,  even  by  the  spirits.  We  wish  it  were ; 
for  we  would  be  enabled  to  make  far  more  rapid  and 
satisfactory  progress. 

'T  is  often  asked  why  females  are  so  often  selected 
by  the  spirits.  For  the  very  reason  above  given, 
women  have  not  so  fixed  an  opinion  from  education; 
they  go  more  by  intuition.  Ask  a  woman  why  she 
does  this  or  that ;  is  not  her  almost  invariable  answer, 


(  271  ) 

"  Well,  because — ^just  because,  if  you  must  know ; 
there  now."  We  find  at  this  present  time  a  cry  is  be- 
ing sent  forth  for  more  educated  mediums.  This  is 
easier  to  ask  than  grant ;   spirits  are  not  gods. 

You  will  also  understand  that,  as  the  uneducated 
are  the  easiest  to  approach,  this  also  leaves  the  door 
open  for  the  lower  spirits  tO'  enter,  and  as  like  at- 
tracts like,  this  will  account  for  so  much  fakirism; 
for,  of  course,  it  is  to  be  admitted  that  there  is  a 
greater  deficiency  of  a  nice  sense  of  moral  responsi- 
bility among  the  uneducated  than  the  educated.  As 
the  spirits  are,  by  this  condition  of  things,  compelled 
to  seek  such  instruments  as  they  can  most  easily  mold 
to  their  service,  they  naturally  draw  from  such  as  of- 
fer the  least  resistance  to  their  psychic  forces.  Tak- 
ing this  fact  into  consideration,  it  is  not  at  all  strange 
if  some  of  our  selections  should  prove  unworthy. 

Our  work  being  mostly  of  a  mental  character,  to 
project  our  thoughts  into  a  vessel  already  filled  with 
old  ideas  is  far  more  difficult  than  to  fill  an  empty  ves- 
sel as  we  are  first  required  to  get  rid  of  the  matter 
that  has,  to  a  large  extent,  permeated  the  old  vessel. 
Much  of  the  old  matter  we  speak  of  as  objectionable  is 
caused  by  your  very  poor  and  meaningless  English 
language,  of  which  we  think  it  appropriate  to  give  you 
a  few  samples  such  as :  If  you  want  to  write  rite  right, 
you  must  not  write  it  wrigJit^  nor  write^  but  rite;  for 
then  you  know  you  have  written  right.  If  the  conduc- 
tor wishes  to  warn  his  passengers  of  danger  in  cross- 
ing a  bridge,  he  tells  them  to  look  out  for  the  bridge, 
when  he  meant  for  them  to  look  in  or  not  to  look  out. 
You  teach  of  darkness,  cold,  inanimation,  vacuum, 


(  272  ) 

and  such  false  gods  to  your  children.  'T  is  true  you 
do  so  in  an  indirect  manner,  as  though  they  had  an 
actual  existence.  This  ruJMsh  must  all  be  emptied 
from  the  vessel  before  we  can  properly  use  it.  Now, 
please  compare  our  old  Greek  language  to  yours. 
Those  of  you  who  are  familiar  with  that  most  expres- 
sive, clear,  and  grand  language  will  not  hesitate  to 
affirm  it  the  most  'beautiful  and  comprehensive  lan- 
guage that  the  world  ever  knew.  We  would  not  for 
a  moment  have  you  entertain  the  idea  that  the  spirits 
are  opposed  to  the  very  highest  possible  point  of  at- 
tainment in  education;  only  let  it  be  more  compre- 
hensive and  expressive  of  the  knotvn  truths  and  in 
such  a  manner  as  not  to  be  misconstrued  or  paradoxi- 
cal in  its  meaning.  In  other  w^ords,  get  rid  of  those 
old  obsolete  expressions  that  have  long  since  outlived 
their  usefulness.  'T  is  the  law  of  matter — especially 
of  the  genus  Jiomo — to  seek  for  excelsus;  but  were 
you  enabled  to  grasp  all  perfection  at  one  grab,  this 
would  be  the  end  of  evolution,  and  all  matter  would 
have  finished  its  mission. 

Educate  your  mediums?  Yes,  by  all  means;  but 
do  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  modern  spiritualism 
is  yet  in  its  infancy.  Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day. 
There  are  a  great  many  obstacles  to  be  removed  before 
this  much  desired  end  can  be  accomplished.  In  meas- 
uring the  advance  of  evolution  you  must  not  over- 
look the  fact  that  all  past  time  is  but  a  drop  in  the 
ocean,  and  so  it  is  with  the  future.  Evolution  ignores 
not  the  insignificant  atom,  for  Avell  it  knows  that  to 
destroy  the  atom  is  to  undermine  its  own  foundation 
and   bring    its   work   to   a   close.       The   moral    of 


(  273  ) 

which  is :  You  should  not  sneer  at  the  Hy^^vill^T'aps 
(the  atom),  or  any  other  raps  (critique)  ;  neither 
should  you  cast  reflections  on  the  physical  mediums 
if  some  are  required  to  hold  their  seances  in  the  dark. 
F'or  in  your  eagerness  to  attract  attention  to  your- 
self, the  friends  of  Mrs.  Drake,  Mrs.  Fairchild,  Miss 
Jenny  More,  C.  V.  Miller,  the  Kockwell  family,  and 
many  other  well-known  dark  seance  or  physical 
mediums,  who  are  known  to  be  honest,  sincere,  chari- 
table, and  genuine,  may  ask  some  very  direct  ques- 
tions and  also  offer  you  some  wholesome  advice  such 
as :  Who  is  to  blame  when  a  fake  medium  is  invited 
on  your  platform  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  flies  to 
an  unattractive,  so-called  inspirational  speaker,  with- 
out whom  you  could  not  attract  a  corporal's  guard? 
If  you  doubt  this,  let  it  be  given  out  in  advance  of 
your  meeting  that  tests  will  be  given  before  the  lec- 
ture begins,  and  five  minutes'  recess  after  to  allow 
those  who  wish  to  retire  to  do  so ;  this  will  be  a  test 
in  a  double  sense  of  the  word ;  at  least  it  will  prove 
whose  bread  has  the  molasses  on  it. 

If  you  really  wish  to  get  rid  of  your  fakes,  first 
test  your  own  officers'  ability  as  to  their  qualifications 
to  judge  between  a  fake  and  a  genuine  medium. 
When  we  look  over  the  field  and  see  so  many  pushing 
themselves  forward  as  would-be  officers  and  leaders 
that  are  not  as  well  qualified  to  pass  a  pure  spiritual 
judgment  on  an  honest  or  dishonest  medium  as  the 
fake  himself,  we  naturally  ask  whose  fault  it  is — the 
society  who  selected  your  incompetent  officers,  or  the 
fake?  Whose  duty  was  it  to  tnj,  test,  and  knotv  who 
you  were  receiving  and  about  to  invite  the  public  to 


(  274  ) 

accept  on  your  recommendation?  Would  you  hire  a 
clerk  or  teacher  of  your  own  children  without  first 
carefully  inquiring  into  and  testing  his  abilities? 

These  remarks  may  be  a  little  off-color  for  a  meta- 
physical work,  yet  we  feel  them  to  be  appropriate  to 
the  present  occasion  (this  5th  of  October,  1897),  and 
shall  offer  no  apology  any  further  than  to  add  that 
the  ph^^sical  mediums  themselves  are  not  interfering 
with  your  public  speakers,  nor  do  they  borrow  the 
influence  of  the  spiritual  press  to  cast  reflection  on 
your  speakers;  neither  are  they  at  all  concerned 
about  their  education,  but  are  exceedingly  anxious  to 
be  delivered  from  their  Puseyistic  friends,  being  well 
aware  that  on  them  (the  physical  mediums)  alone  de- 
pends the  proof  of  spirit  return;  or.  If  a  man  dies, 
shall  he  live  again?  Did  the  great  medium,  Christ, 
concern  himself  as  to  the  educational  qualifications  of 
his  disciples,  or,  rather,  did  he  not  look  more  closely 
as  to  their  charity  for  others  than  themselves? 


(275  ) 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

IS  THE  COURSE  OF  LIFE  AND  MATTER  FOREVER  ONWARD, 
OF  DOES  IT  RETURN  AND  BEGIN  AGAIN? 

If  matter  was  created  we  are  obliged  to  assume  that 
it  came  out  of  nothing ;  then  are  we  again  compelled 
to  infer  a  beginning?  Furthermore,  if  it  had  a  begin- 
ning, then  it  must  have  an  end,  which  would  return  it 
to  nothing. 

The  human  race,  as  it  is  represented  to-day  on 
earth,  is  to  the  future  as  the  worm  under  your  feet 
stands  as  a  representative  of  Avisdom,  when  compared 
to  the  present  human  knowledge. 

From  a  point  of  reason,  it  would  appear  to  us  that 
we  are  obliged  to  accept  one  of  two  postulates — that 
life  and  matter  came  out  of  nothing  and  return  to 
nothing,  or  that  it  always  existed,  and  hence  cannot 
cease  to  be  or  change  a  something  to  nothing.  For  the 
sake  of  truth,  we  would  ask  the  student  to  stop  at  this 
point  and  try  to  realize,  as  a  fact,  what  kind  of  a  posi- 
tion, condition,  or  supposition  a  nothing  is.  Where, 
may  we  ask,  w^ill  you  go  to  find  nothing?  How  will 
you  recognize  or  define  it?  To  illustrate  what  we  are 
endeavoring  to  impress  upon  your  comprehension, 
just  try  to  realize  what  was  the  state  of,  shall  we  say, 
affairs  just  previous  to  so-called  creation.  You  will 
perceive  by  this  that  there  was  no  space  nor  even  a 


(  276  ) 

condition;  for  these  are  things,  and,  as  you  could  not 
have  any  knowledge  or  evidence,  or  even  a  reasonable 
conjecture  of  a  state  of  nothingness,  then  we  have  the 
right  to  assume  that  the  first  postulate  is  altogether 
untenable  and  not  admissible  of  even  a  reasonable  be- 
lief. Then  we  are  compelled  to  accept  the  second 
proposition,  and  see  if  we  can  find  a  rational  solution 
of  the  question :  If  life  and  matter  had  no  beginning, 
has  it  an  end?  And,  if  no  end,  does  it  repeat  upon  it- 
self, over  and  over,  by  reaching  a  special  point  in  pro- 
gression, to  again  fall  back  to  its  first  condition?  In 
assuming  the  affirmative — that  matter  has  no  end — we 
have  a  something  tangible  to  begin  with,  and  as  it  Is 
unnecessary  to  go  over  the  ground  of  known  facts  that 
it  has  been  our  pleasure  to  submit  to  you  for  your  con- 
sideration as  regards  to  the  truth  of  the  evolution  of 
matter,  we  will  confine  our  remarks  to  the  single  ques- 
tion, to  w4t :  Does  it,  life  aud  matter,  repeat  upon  it- 
self or  continue  to  advance  to  a  higher  and  higher 
condition  forever  and  forever  on? 

Now,  while  we  have  shown  that  you  have  not  a 
particle  of  evidence  to  support  a  condition  of  nothing- 
ness, you  do  have  the  positive  evidence  of  the  exist- 
ence of  matter,  and  as  all  our  investigations  have  so 
far  been  conducted  on  a  purely  philosophical  rule  of 
reason,  from  cause  to  effect,  in  following  the  atom  on 
its  upward  course  to  the  condition  of  the  soul  of 
things,  and  as  at  no  stage  of  its  journey  have  we  found 
any  evidence  of  a  permanent  reversal  of  this  law  of 
evolution,  but  find  that  all  known  matter  is  slowly  but 
surely  advancing  onward  and  upward  to  the  border- 
line of  the  {at  present)  limit  of  human  comprehen- 


(  277  ) 

sion,  then  we  are  perfectly  justified  in  our  conclusions 
that  man's  knowledge  and  power  of  comprehension 
will  advance  in  like  proportion,  as  the  great  wheel  of 
evolution  rolls  slowly  onward  in  its  ceaseless  march 
of  progi'ession.  For,  as  to-day  man's  knowledge  of 
matter  and  facts  far  excels  that  of  primeval  man,  so 
in  the  far  distant  future  will  your  progeny  cast  a 
backward  glance  at  your  history  and  smile  as  you  now 
smile  at  primeval  man. 

Take  this,  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century,  and 
note  the  wonderful  advance  of  knowledge  during  the 
last  one  hundred  years.  Nay,  you  need  only  go  back 
fifty  years,  and  then  conceive  the  same  ratio  of  the  de- 
velopment of  knowledge  at  the  end  of — say  only  ten 
thousand  years  hence.  You  will  then  be  able  to 
realize  that  we  are  not  so  very  far  out  in  our  reckon- 
ing when  we  designate  this  as  the  tail  end  of  the  dark 
age;  for  it  is  but  a  fair  and  reasonable  problem  in 
retrospection  and  prospection.  Who  among  you  of 
to-t'ay  can  form  the  slightest  idea  of  the  grand  and 
wonderful  truths  that  now  lie  slumbering  in  the 
womb  of  time  so  remote?  Yet  you  cannot  deny  that  it 
is  but  a  rational  view  of  what  may  be  expected  of  the 
future.  Critics  cannot  justly  class  this  as  a  belief,  but 
we  are  willing  to  admit  that  it  is  only  evidence  a  pri- 
ori,  having  as  a  mathematical  basis  all  past  records  of 
events,  which  will  allow  us  to  assume  such  a  predica- 
tion as  not  only  possible  but  also  probable.  However, 
as  we  have  constantly  asserted,  all  absolute  knowledge 
as  regards  to  the  future  must  cease  at  the  dead-line— 
i.  e.  the  home  of  the  soul  of  things.  Nevertheless,  we 
feel  inclined  to  give  you  a  metaphysical  nut  to  crack, 


(  278  ) 

in  a  conjectural  sense,  as  it  were,  by  turning  the 
tables  on  you,  and  asking  you,  my  friend,  a  question. 

Tlie  question:  Would  it  be  improbable  that  after 
the  lapse  of — say  a  billion  years — the  physical  life  and 
matter  now  constituting  your  planet  earth  should 
gradually  change  into  the  imponderable  or  spirit  at- 
mosphere and  assume  the  condition  of  a  psycho-physi- 
cal sphere  or  home  of  the  soul  of  things? 

Such  a  sphere  would  naturally  be  composed  of  all, 
and  only  tliat,  which  had  formerly  constituted  your 
earth.  Then,  when  this  remote  time  should  come,  and 
not  before,  would  this  newly  born  sphere  assume  its 
position  among  a  higher  and  grander  circle  of  the  in- 
finite? Would  it  not  then  appear,  under  this  consid- 
eration, that  the  present  spirit  world  is  that  locality 
or  condition  of  souls  or  spirits  that  the  Catholic  fra- 
ternity designate  as  Limbo,  Purgatory,  Paradise,  etc? 
Please  look  over  this  little  volume  and  see  if  you  can 
find  anything  that  would  seriously  conflict  with  this 
hypothesis. 

We  would  not  for  a  moment  have  you  think  that 
we  are  throwing  this  down  to  the  Catholics  as  a  sop, 
as  did  Le  Conte,  to  appease  their  wrath ;  for  we  can 
assure  you  it  is  a  matter  of  utter  indifference  to  us 
what  they,  or  any  other  sect,  may  think  of  this  work ; 
in  fact,  we  fully  expect  all  Christian  creeds  to  take 
just  as  kindly  to  this  work  as  they  did  to  the  work  of 
Bruno,  Galileo,  Voltaire,  Paine,  Ingersoll,  and  others. 
But  w^e  hope  in  time  to  place  this  volume  on  the 
shelves  of  all  free  libraries,  for  the  use  of  all  who  are 
free  and  choose  to  read  it.  However,  the  student  will 
please  to  bear  in  mind  that  we  are  neither  asserting 


(  279  ) 

nor  denying  the  truth  of  the  above,  but  merely  offer 
it  as  a  question  to  you;  for  we  do  not  know  the  solu- 
tion. 

We  would  suggest  that  you  first  take  under  con- 
sideration the  birth  of  your  world.  You  first  recog- 
nize it  as  a  nebula,  in  the  form  of  a  gaseous  body.  In 
tkis,  its  first  condition  {if  it  was  its  first  condition), 
it  may  have,  and  probably  did,  continue  for  a  million 
years.  At  the  end  of  this  time  it  had  gradually  as- 
sumed a  liquid,  fiery  state,  in  which  it  continued — 
say,  another  million  of  years.  At  the  end  of  this  peri- 
od, it  had  formed  a  crust  on  the  periphery,  which  con- 
tinued to  thicken  for  another  million  of  years  before 
it  had  sufficiently  cooled  to  allow  of  animal  life.  Dur- 
ing this  last  million  of  years,  we  might  class  it  as  in 
the  volcanic  state,  the  same  as  your  moon  at  this 
period  of  its  life  now  finds  itself — not  dead,  for  there 
is  no  dead — but  not  as  yet  sufficiently  cooled  to  admit 
of  animal  or  vegetable  life.  While  a  planet  is  in  this 
process  of  incrustation,  the  physical  results  would  be 
a  constant  rending  and  tearing  of  the  surface,  par- 
tially caused  by  the  waters  endeavoring  to  find  lodg- 
ment on  the  surface  as  the  immense  heat  receded. 
This  sudden  chilling  would  cause  the  surface  to 
crack,  and  the  molten  mass  would  find  relief  by  es- 
caping through  the  crevice.  The  result  would  be  to 
form  a  range  of  mountains  with  many  active  volca- 
noes among  them,  or  vents  similar  to  a  volcano. 

We  will  not  attempt  to  fix  the  length  of  time  that 
has  escaped  since  the  first  appearance  of  animal  life 
on  the  earth  planet  any  further  than  to  call  your  at- 
tention to  the  various  scientific  reports  of  your  best 


(  280  ) 

geologists,  who  agree  in  pronouncing  it  to  be  several 
hundred  thousand  years  ago  (instead  of  seven  thou- 
sand, according  to  the  Biblical  account). 

Again  we  do  not  deem  it  inappropriate  to  place 
another  question  before  you,  hoping  that  you  will  re- 
ceive our  questions  with  the  same  frankness  that  we 
have  endeavored  to  bestow  towards  yourself. 

If  this,  your  physical  world,  shall  gradually  change 
to  a  spirit  world,  so-called,  it  would  by  so  doing  be 
the  beginning  of  another  change;  we  will  call  this, 
for  the  purpose  of  illustration,  the  end  of  another  mil- 
lion of  years,  or,  it  may  be,  a  billion.  This  would  tend 
to  show  that  you  have  not  so  much  evidence  in  favor 
of  a  solid  or  physical  world  being  the  real  and  perma- 
nent condition  of  matter  as  the  gaseous  or  imponder- 
able condition,  for  we  would  have  the  first  and  third 
condition  a  gaseous  body  and  only  the  second  a  pon- 
derable or  physical  body.  Here  you  will  see  that  the 
evide  )  is  as  two  to  one  in  favor  of  the  invisible  con- 
dition. 

And  now  the  conundrum :  What  evidence  have  you 
got  that  would  justify  you  in  denying  that  the  origi- 
nal atoms  of  matter  that  first  came  together  for  the 
purpose  of  establishing  the  nebulous  condition  of  this 
earth  were  not  the  advanced  product  of  another 
sphere,  lying  lower  in  the  scale  of  progression  than  the 
earth,  which  had  just  reached  the  end  of  its  life  of  one 
million  years? 

Can  youtassert,  as  a  facty  that  the  ultimate  atoms  of 

substance  as  known  to  your  chemists,  are  the  very 

first  and  original  particles  of  matter  that  occupy  all 

.  space  and  had  never  undergone  any  other  change 


(  281  ) 

whatever  until  they  had  first  come  in  contact  with 
your  physical  earth?  If  you  cannot  so  assert,  then 
neither  have  you  the  right  to  deny  that  the  matter  now 
in  a  state  of  gradual  change  from  the  physical  to  the 
so-called  spirit  world  is  not  another  new  sphere  in  a 
state  of  formation. 

Again :  As  this  physical  world  merges  into  a  spirit 
sphere  at  the  end  of  this,  its  present  condition,  may 
not  the  moon  at  that  time  have  reached  the  end  of  its 
incrustation  period  and  assume  the  animal  age?  This 
would  be  the  child  following  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
parent,  or,  as  the  old  cock  crows,  the  young  one 
learns. 

You  will  perceive  that  we  were  correct  in  the  be- 
ginning of  this  work  when  we  fixed  the  limit  of  human 
comprehension  as  the  ultimate  atom  of  matter,  and 
not  the  infinite  atom. 

You  are  accustomed  to  view  the  various  planets  in 
a  physical  state  and  from  a  physical  standpoint  of 
consideration.  Eemember  that  it  is  only  within  the 
past  fifty  years  that  the  attention  of  your  scientists 
has  been  called  to  the  psychic,  through  the  Rochester 
rappings,  hypnotism,  thought-transference,  etc.,  which 
is  additional  proof  that  you  are  but  the  tail  of  the  dark 
age. 

To-day  neither  man  nor  spirit  has  any  knowledge 
previous  to  the  ultimate  atom  or  beyond  the  1  jie  of 
the  soul  of  that  vast,  boundless,  amazing  eternity,  the 
Infinite  One.  For  the  solution  of  one  we  must  cross 
the  dead-line  of  the  infinite  past,  to  solve  the  other 
the  dead-line  of  the  future. 


(  282  ) 


CHAPTER   XXXV. 

A  QUESTION  TO  ASTRONOMERS. 

After  Bruno,  LeConte,  Descartes,  Herschel,  La- 
place, Kant,  Darwin,  and  a  host  of  others  who  have 
failed  to  account  for  the  Cause  of  Causation. 

Please,  sirs,  will  you  allow  me  to  slide  on  your  cel- 
lar-doors? And  I'll  let  you  chew  my  gum  whilst  I'm 
sliding.  And,  if  so  be,  your  high-and-mightiness  ob- 
jects— Avell,  just  go  aliead  with  your  old  ark,  for  T 
guess  it's  not  a-going  to  be  much  of  a  shower  anyway ; 
and,  if  so  be  it  should,  then  there  are  plenty  of  other 
cellar-doors  besides  your  old  fossilized  incline.  How- 
ever, as  we  intend  to  pay  for  this  little  book  before  it 
leaves  the  press,  we  will  take  this  opportunity  to  re- 
mind you  that  it  is  our  calf,  and  we  will  lambast  it 
just  as  much  as  we  please.  Mother  Grundy.  So  there 
now! 

But,  joking  aside,  gentlemen,  are  you  any  nearer  to 
the  solution  to-day  than  Laplace  and  Kant  were  one 
hundred  years  ago?  Have  you  not  let  a  century  pass 
without  a  mark  to  your  credit  in  this  direction,  not- 
withstanding your  advantage  of  a  thirty-six-inch  tel- 
escope, giant  refractors,  spectroscopes,  etc?  And 
why?  Was  it  not  that  you  feared  to  antagonize  the 
clergy?  Allow  us  to  ask  why  you  have  not  more  care- 
fully investigated  the  spirit  phenomenon,  to  see  if  this 


(  283  ) 

truth  would  not  give  you  a  better  solution  of  this 
carefully  avoided  subject  than  your  ready-made  sun 
or  your  Ideal  Being?  And  now,  sirs,  after  these 
probably  unnecessary  preliminary  remarks,  we  will, 
with  your  permission,  take  up  first : — 

THE  UNTRAINED  COMET. 

It  is  claimed  by  some  astronomers — Kepler  for  one 
— that  some  comets  are  already  effete  and  verging 
into  desolation;  i.  e.  disintegrating.  Here  Kepler 
takes  it  for  granted  that  the  atoms  of  substance  are 
ejected  from  the  body  into  the  tail.  If  this  were 
known  to  be  so,  then  it  might  in  time  be  reduced  to 
a  grease-spot ;  if,  on  the  contrary,  the  comet  is  a  world 
in  process  of  birth  by  the  attractions  of  atoms  out  of 
space,  is  it  not  more  likely  that  it  is  gradually  ab- 
sorbing the  tail  into  its  own  body?  Did  it  not  first 
accumulate  these  atoms  out  of  space  for  some  reason- 
able purpose;  that  is,  to  form  a  gaseous  body,  then 
a  fluid  body,  and  so  on? 

Again,  Ave  will  ask.  Is  there  an  unrepaired  iste? 
Is  not  all  organized  matter  constantly  undergoing  a 
process  of  building  up  on  one  side  to  tear  down  on  the 
other,  from  the  first  joining  of  two  atoms  for  a  pre- 
conceived purpose  to  its  full  physical  development, 
whether  it  be  an  organized  cell  or  a  dog-star?  If  be- 
cause some  of  the  comets  are  partially  held  in  their 
present  track  by  the  influence  of  Jupiter,  Saturn,  etc., 
does  this  fact  justify  us  in  assuming  that  they  may  he 
eventually  ejected  from  them?  If  so,  we  may  be  al- 
lowed to  inquire  if  the  same  law  is  not  also  applicable 
to  Saturn,  Jupiter,  etc.?     Is  it  not  by  a  pushing  and 


(  284  ) 

pulling  force — i.  e.,  attraction  and  repulsion — that  all 
globes  are  held  in  their  respective  orbits?  Then, 
whether  it  be  a  repelling  magnetic  force  from  the  sun 
or  an  attractive  force  from  some  other  body  that  pro- 
duces a  comet's  tail,  could  you  reasonahly  expect  any 
other  physical  result  than  that  the  main  body  of  the 
comet  is  exerting  an  attraction  towards  its  center  of 
these  finely  attenuated  atoms  in  opposition  to  a 
counter  force  which  would  have  a  tendency  to  draw 
out  a  tail? 

The  very  fact  of  the  comet  having  a  tail  following 
it  on  its  travel  through  space  is  the  best  of  evidence 
that  the  comet  possesses  the  balance  of  power  and  may 
gradually  absorb  its  own  particles.  The  very  fact  of 
some  comets  having  a  number  of  tails  pointing  in  dif- 
ferent directions  will  serve  to  show  that  as  many  dif- 
ferent counter  forces  are  acting  on  it.  'T  is  true  that 
some  of  the  atoms  may  fall  by  the  way ;  but,  like  the 
earth  planet,  is  it  not  also  gathering  other  matter  to 
compensate  the  loss?  Does  not  the  earth  receive  the 
meteorites? 

It  has  been  asked  by  your  scientists  why  a  comet 
becomes  reduced  in  size,  say  from  300,000  miles  in 
diameter  to  14,000  miles  as  it  draws  near  the  sun. 
This  question,  we  think,  has  never  been  satisfactorily 
answered.  We  will  offer  you  our  opinion  on  the 
nebular  theory.  You  must  first  remember  that  the 
sun  is  in  a  fluid  state  at  present,  and,  while  this  is  an 
ap|)arently  fiery  mass,  yet  it  is  not  a  consuming  fire 
where  all  is  reduced  to  ashes,  but  it  is  an  amalgamat- 
ing process  where  all  the  various  atomic  life  and  sub- 
btance  is  reduced  to  one  homogeneous  fluid  mass  of 


(  285  ) 

which  the  people  of  earth  could  not  have  any  experi- 
eQce  or  knowledge,  as  it  was  at  a  previous  period  of 
the  earth's  fluid  condition — i.  e.  before  crystal,  vege- 
table, or  animal  life  could  have  existed.  You  can 
readily  understand  that  were  it  a  consuming  fire,  the 
crast  of  the  earth  would  have  been  one  immense  lava- 
bed,  volcanic  rock,  etc.  It  is  a  mistaken  theory  that 
the  molten  matter  discharged  from  volcanoes  comes 
from  the  original  fluid  substance  now  occupying  the 
interior  of  the  earth.  .That  which  comes  from  the  vol- 
cano is  from  chemical  combustion  now  going  on  in 
the  crust  of  the  earth,  and  is  a  real  consuming  fire. 

SHRINKAGE  OF  A  COMET. 

And  now  for  our  explanation  for  the  shrinkage  of 
the  comet  as  it  nears  the  sun  and  enlarges  again  as 
it  departs  from  the  sun.  The  comet  is  in  its  first 
stage  as  an  organized  body — i.  e.,  a  gaseous  state. 
The  desire  and  purport  of  all  matter  is  to  advance. 
The  sun,  being  the  master  center  of  this  solar  system, 
or  the  greatest  controlling  body,  when  a  babe  or 
young  world — i.  e.  a  comet —  comes  close  to  the  sun 
it  partakes  of  the  same  influence  governing  the  sun, 
and  the  closer  it  gets  to  the  sun,  the  more  pronounced 
this  influence.  As  the  sun  is  in  a  fluid  condition  at 
present,  then  all  gaseous  bodies  when  approaching  it 
are,  from  the  law  of  sympathetic  attraction,  inclined 
thereby  to  also  become  fluid  bodies.  This  inclination 
to  advance  from  the  gaseous  state  to  a  fluid  one  would 
produce  a  visible  shrinkage  in  the  lighter  material 
in  its  endeavor  to  effect  a  change  into  a  denser  matter. 
After  countless  ages  and  often  repeated  attempts,  it 


(  286  ) 

finds  at  each  trial  it  gains  a  little,  until  finally  success 
crowns  its  efforts,  and  it  becomes  a  fluid  body,  to 
again  go  through  the  same  struggle  for  incrustation. 
We  deem  it  necessary  to  remark  that  if  tliere  were 
a  resisting  medium  in  space  through  which  not  only 
the  comets  had  to  move,  but  also  all  the  other  planets 
would  have  to  move,  then  you  might  be  justified  in 
thinking  that  all  was  indeed  decay  from  friction,  if 
from  no  other  cause.  But  all  space  is  filled  with  in- 
finite atomic  life,  which  produces^  and  not  destroys, 
force — i.  e.  it  is  the  beginning  of  or  first  conception 
of  thought y  force  and  suhstance. 

LAPLACE^S   GREAT   SUN. 

We  will  now  endeavor  to  draw  for  your  considera- 
tion another  illustration  of  the  law  of  so-called  crea- 
tion; and  in  so  doing  hope  to  assist  our  friend  La- 
place out  of  a  dilemma,  where  he,  like  many  other 
theorists,  invariably  find  themselves  in  trying  to  ac- 
count for  a  first  cause,  to  wit,  in  beginning  at  the 
wrong  end  of  the  question,  where  they  are  compelled 
to  start  their  edifice  on  mere  belief  or  assumption  of 
a  great  something,  such  as  a  great  being,  or,  as  our 
friend  Laplace  has  it,  a  great  ready-made  sun,  which, 
to  our  mind,  would  appear  to  be  a  distinctiO'U  without 
a  difference. 

Now,  my  inquiring  friend,  alloAV  us  to  ask:  If  a 
great  sun  was  the  first  cause  of  all  creation  or  created 
bodies,  what,  in  your  opinion,  must  have  been  the  di- 
ameter of  such  a  sun?  Do  you  not  see  that,  by  any 
reasonable  mathematical  solution,  it  would  have  to  be 
equal  in  bulk  to  all  the  rest  of  that  which  it  had  ere- 


(  287  ) 

ated?  Just  try  to  conceive  of  all  the  other  globes  that 
now  occupy  space  concentrated  into  one  immense 
sphere — for  this  would  be  the  first  condition,  as  they, 
at  that  time  or  any  other,  had  no  other  resource  from 
which  to  draw  material.  For  by  this  theory  all  sub- 
stance and  all  life,  that  now  and  forever  shall  occupy 
infinite  space  must  have  been  concentrated  in  one  im- 
mense organized  hody. 

Here  allow  us  to  follow  Socrates'  mode  of  argument 
by  asking  a  question :  Was  not  this  sphere  composed 
of  single  atoms  of  substance?  Did  this,  its  first  con- 
dition, just  happen  so?  How  did  it  happen  to  burst 
or  throw  off  the  other  globes?  Did  it  just  grow  and 
grow,  as  Topsy  expressed  it,  until  it  could  no  longer 
contain  itself  and  had  to  burst?  If  so  it  grew, 
where  did  the  substance  come  from  that  enlarged  it? 

And  now,  my  friend,  as  these  questions  leave  you 
Avhere  Laplace  found  himself,  and  where  all  others, 
we  think,  may  expect  to  land  who  seek  for  a  creative 
cause,  to  wit,  floundering  in  the  mud,  let  us  see  where 
the  opposite  course  will  leave  us. 

ALL  BODIES  CAME  FROM  THE  UNIT. 

We  shall  begin  by  affirming  that  all  great  things  are 
produced  by  the  uniting  of  the  very  smallest  of  all 
things;  that  is,  the  greater  body  could  only  come 
into  existence  by  the  consent  of,  or  the  uniting  of,  its 
various  subdivisional  parts.  Out  of  what?  Cer- 
tainly not  out  of  the  dismemberment  of  a  larger  body ; 
for  if  so,  then  shall  we  be  obliged  to  refer  you  to  our 
friend  Huxley  and  his  lobster  paradox  for  a  solution; 
for  we  must  candidly  admit  that  there  is  no  knowl- 


C  288  ) 

edge  or  reasonable  ground  of  belief  that  any  such  an 
immense  sphere  ever  had  any  but  a  chimerical  exist- 
ence, while  the  existence  of  atomic  substances  is  a 
well-known  fact. 

Having  denied  such  a  postulate,  the  onus  is  now  on 
us  to  advance  a  more  reasonable  one.  In  so  doing  we 
will  be  required  to  repeat  some  of  our  previous  argu- 
ments, but  we  promise  to  be  as  brief  as  our  love  of 
truth  will  justify,  and  will  begin  by  again  asking  ques- 
tions. First :  Is  not  mathematics  one  of  the  greatest  of 
existing  truths?  Did  this  great  thing  burst  and  scat- 
ter itself  over  all  space  in  the  form  of  units  (atoms)  ? 
To  be  more  explicit,  did  geometry,  algebra,  mensura- 
tion, etc.,  first  exist  as  a  great  and  wonderful  whole, 
to  suddenly  burst  into  decimal  parts,  of  the  numer- 
als, such  as  one,  two,  three,  etc?  Or  was  not  mathe- 
matics, as  a  great  body  of  truth,  the  effect  or  result 
of  a  slow  process  of  addition  by  the  adding  of  one  dis- 
covered process  to  another?  In  making  any  mathe- 
matical calculation,  do  you  not  have  to  first  seek  a 
single  unit,  or  one^  and  build  your  greater  from  this? 
Then,  in  this  case,  is  not  the  first  beginning  the  one 
single  unitf  Could  Euclid's  problems  possibly  have 
existed  before  the  multiplication-table?  Or  the  mul- 
tiplication-tables before  the  numerals?  Here  you 
have  for  a  positive  fact  an  actual  knowledge  that  at 
least  one  of  the  greatest  things  on  earth  is  the  effect 
of  something  that  previously  existed  in  an  atomical 
condition ;  and  that  it  owes  its  greatness  solely  to  the 
organization  of  its  atomical  parts. 

Illustration  number  two  (where  one  man  shall  rep- 
resent the  unit  or  atom)  :  His  simple  understanding 


(  289  ) 

of  the  law  of  physics  teaches  him  that  two  are 
stronger  than  one.  He  wishes  to  accomplish  some- 
thing greatly  beyond  his  individual  force ;  he  attracts 
a  friend  of  similar  ideas.  Here  you  have  precisely 
the  same  first  law  of  an  organized  body  that  brought 
the  single  atoms  of  substance  together — i.  e.,  sympa- 
thetic attraction.  We  will  only  change  the  name,  and 
call  it  similarity  of  ideas.  These  attract  others  until 
we  have  a  single  body  composed  of  twenty  units. 
Here  steps  into  existence  Darwin's  law  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest ;  for  you  will  perceive  that  the  strongest 
mind  will  control  this  body.  So  we  will  appoint  him 
Captain.  Now,  we  find  that  the  more  the  units  com- 
bine, the  greater  the  attraction,  and  we  now  have  o 
hundred  units.  The  Captain  finds  that  if  he  would 
survive  he  must  have  five  captains,  while  he  becomes, 
from  the  law  of  necessity,  a  Colonel,  and  so  the  in- 
crease of  the  units  goes  on  until  we  find  a  well-organ- 
ized and  great  army,  and  at  its  head  stands  a  great 
man  who  is  the  one  great  governing  life  of  the  destiny 
of  this  mighty  army.  Question :  Was  not  this  great 
body  the  effect  of  a  previous  condition  or  cause? 

Thirdly :  Is  not  all  the  present  knowledge  of  man- 
kind as  represented  on  the  shelves  of  your  great  and 
small  libraries,  the  effect  of  a  previous  knowledge  of 
simpler  things?  Or,  we  may  say,  the  effect  of  the  or- 
ganization by  uniting  together  the  slowly  accumulat- 
ing mass  of  knowledge  of  single  discoveries  of  truth? 
Was  not  this  great  knowledge  the  effect  of  a  previous 
cause?  Was  not  the  cause  produced  by  one  man  at 
a  time  (the  unit),  adding  his  load  to  organize  the 
whole,  atom  to  atom?    Or  was  it  the  result  of  some 


(  290  ) 

great  unknown  sun  or  being,  that  finally  got  so  large 
from  some  secret  process  of  getting  something  out  of 
nothing  that  it  had  to  burst?  Or,  perhaps.  Pandora 
was  only  one  of  countless  millions  of  box-agents,  em- 
ployed for  the  occasion  to  relieve  the  pressure. 

And  now,  my  friend,  we  will  again  appeal  to  your 
own  common  sense,  and  ask  you  to  look  around  in  any 
direction  where  it  is  possible  for  you  to  apply  those 
senses  and  judge  for  yourself  if  the  cause  of  all  ob- 
jective bodies  that  have  an  existence  cannot  be  disin- 
tegrated and  reduced  to  the  atom  or  single  unit  of 
substance?  Is  not  this  postulate  so  plain  and  unde- 
niable as  to  cause  you  to  actually  fall  over  it  in  order 
to  dodge  the  issue  of  truth? 

If  our  point  of  reasoning  is  correct, — and  we  think 
it  is, —  then  we  will  avail  ourselves  of  this  oppor- 
tunity to  give  the  friends  of  Mr.  Laplace  an  astronom- 
ical nut  to  crack :  It  is  a  well-established  fact  that  our 
sun,  together  with  its  numerous  family  of  stars  or 
planets,  is  but  one  of  thousands  of  other  systems,  and, 
as  we  have  shown  by  our  map  where  we  illustrate  the 
spheres,  that  our  system  is  but  one  of  the  units  that 
revolve  around  a  still  greater  sun  (Polaris),  and  so 
on — a  wheel  within  a  wheel — as  we  have  stated,  this 
sun  of  ours  became  the  general  or  governing  body  by 
the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  or  from  the  very 
force  of  necessity,  and  so  was  the  second  and  third 
sun;  and  thus  it  goes  on  and  on  to  higher  stages  of 
progression — we  might  say,  a  sort  of  robbing  of  Peter 
to  pay  Paul. 

Infinite  space,  filled  with  atomic  force,  thought, 
and  substance  is  the  inexhaustible  source  of  supply, 


(  291  ) 

the  first  cause;  that  this  process  is  still  going  on  and 
on  forever,  is  evidenced  by  the  constant  appearance 
of  so-called  old  and  new  comets  or  nebulae.  Like  the 
apple  on  the  tree,  all  do  not  reach  a  full  unfoldment, 
but  disintegrate,  some  in  the  form  of  meteorites, 
others  in  star-dust,  etc. 

THE  CAUSE  OF  THE  DECLINATION  OF  THE  EARTH'S  AXIS. 

And  now  the  question  to  astronomers:  Why  does 
the  pole  of  the  earth,  or  its  axis,  as  also,  of  Saturn  and 
many  other  planets,  have  an  inclination  in  one  con- 
stant direction?  AYe  think  this  question  has  never 
been  satisfactorily  answered ;  therefore,  we  may  be  ex- 
cused for  our  presumption  in  offering  you  our  views 
on  the  subject.  You  tell  us  that  the  axis  of  the  earth 
has  an  obliquity  of  twenty-three  degrees  twenty-seven 
minutes  and  fifty- five  seconds,  and,  further,  that  this 
angle  is  constantly  but  very  slowly  growing  less.  If 
the  angle  was  growing  less,  and  this  was  a  positive 
known  quantity,  then  all  you  wise  men  would  have  to 
do  to  determine  when  the  end  of  the  earth  should  ar- 
rive would  be  to  compute  this  known  graduation  to 
determine  the  exact  time.  For  instance,  if  the  reduc- 
tion was  one  minute  in  one  year,  then  in  1407  years, 
it  should  arrive  at  a  perpendicular,  the  effect  of  whicli 
would  be  to  raise  the  temperature  at  the  equator  to 
such  a  height  as  to  almost  produce  spontaneous  com- 
bustion, while  those  in  the  frigid  zone  would  be  slowly 
driven  into  the  temperate  zone.  Just  imagine  such  a 
population ;  Chinese  sampans  would  be  at  a  premium. 
{Caution. — Should  any  Adventists  happen  to  be 
present  while  you  are  reading  this,  please  read  it  very 


(  292  ) 

easy;  for  we  do  not  wish  to  be  the  cause  of  their  a,gaiii 
giving  away  their  possessions  when  1407  years  hence 
shall  arrive,  because  of  the  prophecy  that  the  next 
destruction  of  the  world  is  to  be  by  fire. ) 

You  are  also  told  that  the  orbit  of  the  earth  is  aa 
ellipsis.  We  will  now  give  you  our  explanation  on 
the  unity  hypothesis. 

First :  We  venture  to  say  that  if  astronomers  will 
take  the  trouble  to  make  four  measurements  of  this 
angle — say,  one  at  perihelion,  one  at  aphelion,  and  one 
at  each  meridian,  (i.  e.,  March  and  September),  that 
they  will  find  there  is  a  difference  between  January 
and  June,  and  that  March  and  September  are  very 
much  alil^e,  for  this  reason:  these  axes  all  point  to 
one  greater  center,  around  which  our  sun  and  its  fam- 
ily revolve.  This  we  show  on  the  map  as  the  second 
sun.  This  second  sun  we  will  call  for  this  occasion 
the  General  Avho  commands  not  only  our  solar  system 
but  several  other  neighboring  systems,  which  we  will 
call  Colonels .  Now,  each  sphere  of  our  system  is  ro- 
tating on  its  own  axis.  The  equator  is  moving 
through  space  faster  than  the  pole.  This  generates 
electro-magnetism,  which  seeks  a  point  of  escape 
where  the  least  resistance  is  offered,  which  is  the  pole. 
We  say  generates  electro-magnetism;  of  course,  you 
will  understand  that  when  we  use  the  term  generate 
we  do  not  mean  that  something  is  created,  only  that  a 
certain  change  is  produced  in  substance  by  which  the 
matter  of  electro-magnetism  so-called  is  recognized  as 
an  existing  thing. 

This  substance  in  the  atomic  condition,  as  we  have 
before  stated,  occupies  all  space,  and  is  the  life-giving 


(  293  ) 

food  and  energy  of  all  planets;  as  the  world  moves 
through  space  at  the  equator  it  permeates  and  ener- 
gizes the  entire  mass  and  escapes  at  the  pole.  This 
inflowing  life-giving  fluid  is  that  which  Descartes  en- 
deavored to  explain  by  giving  it  the  name  of  the 
"Vortex  Force"  (the  Cartesian  theory).  By  this 
passage,  like  the  atoms  of  the  apple,  it  undergoes 
another  change  which  advances  it  into  a  higher  condi- 
tion and  prepares  it  to  pass  on  to  the  second  sun. 
Here  allow  us  to  state  that  a  somewhat  similar  pro- 
cess is  passing  from  your  sun  and  the  earth  and  all 
the  other  members  of  your  solar  system,  and  is  that 
which  many  erroneously  suppose  is  the  physical  heat 
of  matter  in  a  state  of  combustion  in  the  sun,  which 
may  eventually  consume  the  sun.  How  absurd! 
For  by  our  explanation, — if  we  be  correct,  ahem! — 
you  will  perceive  that  there  is  a  constant  source  of 
supply. 

Just  fall  back  again,  my  friend,  on  your  own  com- 
mon sense,  and  ask  yourself  what  kind  of  known  phy- 
sical heat  from  combustion  could  possibly  be  pro- 
duced so  intense  as  to  be  able  to  travel  93,000,000 
miles  through  such  a  frigid  temperature  as  lies  be- 
tween the  earth  and  the  sun  that  could  have  the  fac- 
ulty of  warming  the  atmosphere  of  the  earth  but  have 
no  perceptible  effect  on  the  intermediate  substance 
lying  between  and  much  closer  to  the  fire. 

Now,  all  planets  are  again  revolving  around  the 
sun.  Our  sun  is  also  rotating  on  its  own  axis,  and 
throwing  off  a  magnetic  current,  and  at  the  same  time 
is  revolving  with  its  family  around  the  General,  or 
second  sun  once  in  thirty-three  years.  This  second  sun 


(  294  ) 

is  holding,  by  its  power  of  attraction  acting  on  eacli 
member  of  our  sun's  family,  our  Colonel  and  his  fam- 
ily in  their  respective  places.  This  greater  force  is 
exercised  by  and  through  the  magnetic  fluid  that  es- 
capes •  V  means  of  the  pole  of  the  earth.  At  the  same 
time  o.xi  neighboring  family  or  solar  system  is  pulling 
us  in  the  direction  of  perihelion.  ( See  illustration. ) 
This  being  the  case,  then  our  astronomers  will  find, 
upon  a  more  careful  investigation,  that  the  orbit  of 
the  earth-plane  is  not  an  ellipse  formed  by  a  plane 
passing  through  a  cylinder,  but  is  an  ellipse  formed 
by  a  plane  passing  through  a  cone;  the  apex  of  this 
cone  is  the  second  sun  (or  Polaris)  around  which  our 
sun  and  its  family  revolve.  Now,  draw  a  number  of 
lines  from  this  apex  through  the  axes  of  the  earth 
at  the  four  quarters  of  its  orbit,  and  let  each  line  be  of 
the  same  length ;  then  take  these  ends  as  the  surface 
of  a  plane.  This  plane  w^ould  be  found  to  be  a  per- 
fect circle  or  the  base  of  a  cone,  but  let  the  earth  be 
in  any  position  in  its  orbit,  the  pole  would  be  found 
pointing  f ai'  off  in  space  to  the  second  sun.  ( See  il- 
lustration.) The  time  required  for  our  sun  and  its 
family  of  planets  to  complete  one  circle  around  Po- 
laris, called  its  orbit,  is  thirty- three  years;  at  one 
point  in  this  orbit  the  earth  passes  through  a  body  of 
meteorites  which,  your  authorities  claim,  visit  your 
earth  every  thirty-three  years,  instead  of  the  earth 
visiting  them.     (The  Leonids  or  TempePs  comet.) 

Was  "  Rastus  "  or  Galileo  right  in  saying  that  the 
sun  "  do  "  move  around  the  earth  or  around  Polaris? 
Which,  gentlemen? 

And  now  for  a  word  to  those  high  and  mighty  gen- 


SECOND  SUN 
^  CALLED      POLARIS 


Vvi^  ^N 


(  295  ) 

tlemen  who  claim  to  have  reached  the  present  pinna- 
cle of  scholastic  attainment :  Gentlemen,  you  are  very 
well  aware  that  after  having  reached  such  an  exalted 
position,  that  nowhere  in  all  of  your  investigations 
have  you  succeeded  in  bringing  to  the  light  of  truth 
any  positive  or  rational  evidence  of  a  previous  exist- 
ence— i.  e.  before  the  so-called  creation — or  of  a  so- 
called  divine  omnipotent  wisdom.  Neither  have  you 
any  evidence  that  the  present  condition  of  either  or- 
ganized or  unorganized  matter  is  the  result  of  chance 
or  from  the  effect  of  nature  blindly  modeling  them 
into  shape. 

A    QUESTION    TO    PROFESSOR    GEORGE   DAVIDSON    ON    THIS 
DECLINATION^  AND  HIS  REPLY. 

Note  hy  the  scribe. — After  this  chapter  of  a  ques- 
tion to  astronomers  was  written,  I  was  somewhat  un- 
certain as  to  whether  there  might  not  be  some  known 
cause  of  the  declination  of  the  earth's  axis  with  which 
I  was  not  familiar,  and,  to  set  the  matter  at  rest,  so 
far  as  I  was  concerned,  I  wrote  the  following  question 
to  Professor  George  Davidson : — 

Alameda,  March  21,  1898. 
Mr.  Davidson  :  Dear  Sir, — Will  you  kindly  inform 
me  whether  there  is  any  known  law  that  causes  the 
declination  of  the  earth's  axis  of  about  23  degrees, 
and  where  I  can  find  the  authority,  and,  if  there  is 
none,  would  you  please  inform  me  what  is  the  gener- 
ally accepted  theory  of  the  cause,  and  oblige. 
Yours,  etc., 

C.  H.  FOSTER. 


(  296  ) 

In  i   ^ily  I  received  the  following  answer : — 

San  FRANCISCO;,  March  28,  '98. 

Mr.  C.  H.  Poster^  Alameda :  Dear  ^ir, — I  acknowl- 
edge receipt  of  jonr  letter  of  the  21st.  You  are  ask- 
ing too  much.  The  ''  Nebular  Hypothesis  "  of  Kant, 
Laplace,  and  others  undertakes  to  tell  how  the  uni- 
verse was  made.  The  whole  subject  is  beyond  human 
comprehension,  and  involved  therein  is  the  rotation 
of  the  sun  and  planets ;  the  revolution  of  the  planets 
and  relation  of  the  satellites  to  their  primaries. 

Furthermore,  the  relation  of  the  orbits  of  the  plan- 
ets to  the  sun  and  the  relation  of  the  axis  of  rotation 
of  each  planet  to  its  orbit  are  among  the  inscrutable 
things. 

We  shall  never  know  how^  this  and  other  universes 
were  formed,  nor  how  they  received  their  movements 
of  rotation  or  revolution.  We  must  take  the  facts 
as  they  present  themselves  to  us. 

So  soon  as  we  know  the  cause  or  causes  of  these 
and  other  associated  phenomena  we  shall  have  one  of 
the  attributes  of  omniscience. 

Please  understand  clearly  that  you  are  not  author- 
ized to  publish  this  statement  in  any  form  or  method. 
Very  respectfully, 

George  Davidson. 

Professor  Davidson  is  at  this  date  probably  as  well 
informed  on  this  subject  as  any  scholar  in  the  United 
States,  yet  we  are  inclined  to  think  that  his  reply 
bears  us  out  in  our  conclusions  concerning  some  of 
the  objectionable  features  of  scholasticism  when  he 
first  acknowledges  the  question  to  be  among  the  in- 


(  297  ) 

scrutable  things,  and  then  adopts  the  same  old  error 
of  your  school  professors  by  the  dogmatic  assertion 
that  we  shall  never  know  how  this  universe  was 
formed,  but  must  take  the  facts  as  they  present  them- 
selves to  us. 

Allow  us  to  ask.  How  does  he  know  that  the  uni- 
verse was  f 07111  ed  at  all?  Must  we  take  this  as  a  fact 
because  he  or  the  priest  so  declares? 

Again  we  would  call  attention  to  what  would  seem 
to  us  as  a  graceful  palaam  to  the  clcrgi/  in  his  indirect 
acknowledgment  of  the  existence  of  a  great-r-ahem- - 
well,  let  us  say,  omnipotence — when  he  declares  that 
to  know  the  cause  of  the  declination  of  the  earth's  axis 
("and  other  associated  phenomena")  we  shall  have 
one  of  the  attributes  of  omniscience.  We  would  ask 
him  why  a  knowledge  of  the  cause  of  this  particular 
phenomenon  should  impart  to  us  an  attribute  of  om- 
niscience any  more  than  ony  other  acquired  knowl- 
edge of  the  cause  of  an  effect. 

We  wish  to  say,  with  the  greatest  respect  for  Pro- 
fessor Davidson,  that  the  tone  and  manner  of  his  an- 
swering the  question  is  what  we  have  all  along  con- 
tended against,  which  is :  You  must  accept  what  the 
priest,  the  parent,  and  your  teacher  lay  down  as  a 
fixed  and  unalterable  law  of  facts  or  stand  the  brand- 
ing iron  of  heresy. 

They  might  just  as  well  be  as  frank  as  Professor 
Davidson  when  he  acknowledges  that  we  are  asking 
too  much,  by  the  further  acknowledgment  that,  as  a 
professor,  holding  a  responsible  position  as  well  as  a 
lucrative  one,  that  if  they  wish  to  retain  their  posi- 
tions they  should  not  antagonize  the  various  parental. 


(  298  ) 

credal,  and  political  sources  of  revenue  and  other  sup- 
plies. However,  the  bump  of  caution  is  not  always 
to  be  despised. 

If  you  are  satisfied  in  your  own  mind  that  Laplace's 
idea  of  a  previous  existing  great  sun  representing 
this  divine  omnipotence  is,  so  far  as  any  evidence 
goes,  a  chimerical  idea  (and  Ave  think  you  are),  then 
why  not  come  boldly  out  and  deny  the  false  god  and 
prove  your  freedom  of  intellect  by  at  least  acknowl- 
edging that  the  field  of  occult  science  is  beyond  your 
boasted  scholastic  attainments,  but  that  you  hope, 
through  the  assistance  of  such  discoveries  in  psychol- 
ogy as  have  been  developed  within  the  last  fifty  years 
and  before  the  expiration  of  another  fifty  years,  to  be 
in  possession  of  sufficient  positive  evidence  as  to  for- 
ever set  this  question  at  rest — i.  e :  Were  the  atoms  of 
infinite  thought,  force,  and  substance  that  fills  all 
space  the  beginning  of  all  organized  or  objective  mat- 
ter? Or  was  some  great  (and  necessarily  mythical) 
previously  organized  body  the  first  cause  of  atomic 
existence? 

WHAT  CONSTITUTES  LIFE. 

We  sincerely  hope  that  in  the  interim  you  may  be 
able  to  give  to  the  world  a  positive  and  analytical 
explanation  of  what  constitutes  and  from  whence 
came  life,  if  our  definition  should  prove  incorrect, 
which  is: — 

Substance  of  itself,  if  deprived  of  Life,  would  be 
the  only  thing  absolutely  inanimate  or  in  a  positive 
state  of  rest.  Now,  trace  back  from  the  substance 
and  we  find  by  giving  it  (substance),  motion  requires 


(  299  ) 

force,  and  to  procure  force  we  must  have  energy,  to 
procure  energy  we  must  have  life,  for  it  is  only  by 
motion  in  matter  that  we  recognize  such  a  thing  as 
life  exists,  and  only  by  the  knowledge  gained  through 
occult  science  as  established  by  the  spirit  phenom- 
enon within  the  past  fifty  years  that  we  noiv  know 
that  life  continues  beyond  the  grave ;  and  by  this  pow- 
er of  life  in  its  first  recognition  by  man  as  thought 
and  force  do  we  secure  the  first  move  on  the  chess- 
board of  existence — i.  e.  the  organism  of  the  units. 

This  fact  established,  of  life  beyond  the  grave,  also 
furnishes  the  positive  knowledge  that  motion,  force, 
energy,  and  intelligence  accompany  these  spirit  phe 
nomena.  Common  sense  also  teaches  us  that  there 
could  be  no  motion  without  something  to  move.  So, 
as  we  do  not  take  our  physical  matter  with  us  beyond 
the  grave,  then  the  question  arises:  What  kind  of 
matter  is  it  that  moves  and  exhibits  all  those  attri- 
butes of  life?  We  call  it  imponderable,  and  it  must 
be  matter.  Physical  man  is  but  an  accumulation  of 
units  (atoms)  of  substance  which  he  lays  down  at  the 
grave.  The  monkey,  the  tree,  the  crystal — ah !  even 
the  atmosphere  and  water, — follow  precisely  the  same 
law. 

Now  follows  an  important  question :  Do  not  all  of 
these  possess  life?  As  we  think  we  have  conclusively 
shown  you  that  Life  is  a  thing  that  is  capable  of  prov- 
ing its  continued  existence  after  the  disintegration  of 
the  physical  object  through  which  you  became  aware 
of  its  existence,  then  is  not  this  fact  also  conclusive 
evidence  that  all  organized^Ufe  continues  beyond  the 
grave?    Has  science  any  actual  knowledge  of  some 


(  300  ) 

other  mystic  law  by  which  the  imponderable  sub- 
stance or  matter  that  constitutes  the  I  AM  of  man  is 
particularly  separated  from  the  matter  of  the  monkey 
or  tree? 

Here  we  shall  again  assert  that  the  only  positive, 
tangible  evidence  that  physical  man  has  to-day  is  that 
all  matter  does  pass  on  to  higher  conditions  in  the 
course  of  ages.  As  to  the  time  required  or  where  the 
final  end  may  be  ( if  there  is  an  end),  is,  from  the  very 
nature  of  the  question,  infinitely  infinite,  and  cuts 
no  figure  pro  or  con  as  to  the  truth  of  our  assertion. 
This  fact  established  leads  us  to  ask,  What,  then,  is 
the  condition  or  state  of  this  matter  after  it  passes 
the  grave?  Does  it  disperse  itself  over  all  space? 
Or  is  it  not  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  same 
law  of  sympathetic  attraction  draws  and  holds  like 
to  like,  and,  as  it  would  naturally  have  a  stronger  af- 
finity to  this  earth  planet  from  which  it  advanced 
than  any  other  planet,  would  not  this  affinity  cause 
it  to  assume  a  spherical  shape  around  the  earth? 
And  if  so,  would  not  this,  let  us  say,  double-distilled 
essence  of  the  physical  earth-matter  be  a  truthful  rep- 
resentative of  all  those  ancient  ideas  that  still  cling 
to  this  enlightened  age,  conceived  by  some  to  be  Heav- 
en, by  others  Hades,  Limbo,  Purgatory,  Sheol,  Hell, 
etc.;  for  in  such  a  sphere  would  be  found  the  very 
essence  of  all  things  and  all  minds  of  an  earthly  ori- 
gin? 

In  this  condition  would  be  found  the  evidence  of 
the  truth  of  the  assertion  that,  as  a  man  thinks,  so 
he  is,  for  to  some  it  would  indeed  be  Hell  while  Heav- 
en to  others. 


(  301  ) 

thp::  question 

If  as  I  tliink  that  I  know  I  am, 
Then  why  am  I  what  I  am? 

TO  THE  SPHYNX. 

Thou  silent  sentinel  of  ages, 

WHO^  WHY^  and  what  art  thou? 

Mystery  of  the  sandy  sea, 

Canst  tell  to  me,  I  pray  thee. 

The  riddle  of  the  Sphynx? 

The  folks,  of  yore,  that  have  gone  before 

Have  left  the  wonder  in  me. 

ANSWER. 

"  Mortal,  whence  comest  thou  and  why? 

I'm  but  a  body,  it  is  true,  how  of  you? 

Ten  million  miles  beyond  the  sky 

A  spark,  a  lineage,  yet  but  a  clew ; 

'T  was  the  bed  in  which  you  made  me  lie 

As  a  spark  of  life,  a  drop  of  dew. 

Was  this  the  Whence  or  Why  of  cause? 
This  spark  that  was  before  the  know, 
Or  hut  the  ivork  of  other  laws? 
As  to  what  I  am?    I  'm  here  to  show 
Though  I  know  not  whence  or  why  I  go. 

Could  man  reduce  a  point  in  space 

By  artificial  means,  I  trow. 

Or  fiw  an  atom  in  a  jjlace 

To  lead  to  knowledge  of  the  how? 

Is  nothing  true  that  has  no  Why, 

Or  is  to  be  the  proof  for  now? 


(  802  ) 

Till  mortal  pass  beyond  the  sky 
They  ne'er  can  know  immortal  law 
To  solve  Jiis  riddle  man  may  try 
With  base  so  low  and  head  so  high; 
Can  BODY  be,  without  a  flaw? 
A  body  that,  can  never  die. 

Poor,  pimy  man,  you  can  but  try 

To  solve  the  riddle  as  to  why  Am  I ! 

For  that  I  am,  is  proof  to  show ; 

The  design,  though  mortal,  proves  Thought  we  know ; 

That,  is  the  toork  which  thought  may  do ; 
But  thought  of  itself  can  man  construe 
That  out  of  nothing  something  grow? 
Or  was  Force  required  to  make  me  so? 

But  the  riddle  of  riddles,  as  you  may  see, 

Brings  thought  from  out  of  infinity, 

To  direct  the  Force  that  modeled  me. 

My  riddle  is,  as  to  why  I  be? 

Are  Thought  and  Force,  and  Substance  three? 

Or  are  they  one  and  infinity? 

As  thought  do  I  exist  or  know? 
Is  force  a  Thing  without  the  blow? 
As  substrntial  proof  you  all  may  see, 
I'm,  all  that's  real  or  can  ever  be; 
For  When  my  three  parts  you  do  unite 
You'll  find  I'm  One  and  the  infinite. 


(  803  ) 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 
(Jan.  26,  1898.) 

SUBSTANCE^  ANIMATION  AND  MATTER. 

Think,  reason,  intelligence,  energy,  force,  motion, 
i.  e.,  rotary,  spiral,  vortex,  etc. 

As  we  have  asserted  that  there  is  no  such  thing  in 
existence  as  inanimation,  and  have  designated  it  as 
a  false  God,  we  think  it  appropriate,  at  this  point 
in  our  remarks,  to  devote  a  few  explanatory  words  to 
this  subject.  We  will  begin  by  saying  that,  while  in 
the  past  science  was  unaware  of  many  of  the  finer 
psychic  laws  governing  the  substance  of  matter,  and 
therefore,  so  far  is  excusable,  yet  to-day  no  such  an 
assertion  as  the  existence  of  inanimate  matter  is  per- 
missible. 

In  order  that  you  may  more  readily  grasp  our 
meaning,  w^e  will  pursue  the  same  course  that  has 
governed  us  from  the  beginning  of  this  work ;  that  is, 
we  will  commence  our  investigation  at  the  ultimate 
limit  of  human  comprehension  of  the  beginning  of 
things. 

First,  we  have  the  atomic  life  of  substance,  which 
we  first  recognize  as  a  thought;  then  reason;  then 
from  these  is  produced  intelligence.  For  you  must 
acknowledge  that  intelligence  is  the  effect  of  reason. 


(  304  ) 

Hence,  reason  must  have  begun  with  one  think,  or  a 
single  thought.  The  next  advance  is  in  the  order  fol- 
lowing— ^^i.  e.,  energy,  force,  and  motion, — which  in 
turn  produces  change ;  said  change  is  first  made  mani- 
fest by  a  rotary  motion,  then  spiral,  then  vortex. 

You  will  please  understand  that  we  are  now  speak- 
ing of  the  single  atom  of  substance  or  the  dawn  of  the 
spark  of  life;  that  is,  at  the  very  instant  that  life 
first  acts  or  asserts  its  authority  over  substance  by  a 
thought.  Now,  you  can  readily  conceive  that  all 
these  various  conditions  must  be  brought  forward, 
developed  or  produced  in  the  exact  order  as  we  have 
named  them — i.  e.  a  single  think,  then  reason,  intelli- 
gence, energy,  force,  motion,  and  change,  after  which 
comes  wisdom  from  the  experience  of  repeated 
change;  for  what  is  wisdom  but  the  accumulated 
knowledge  of  truth  gathered  by  a  prolonged  and  use- 
ful life  of  observing  the  application  and  effect  of 
change. 

It  is  at  this  stage  that  an  erroneous  idea  or  false 
God  again  finds  an  opportunity  to  erect  that  hoary 
head  of  his  in  the  name  of  instinct.  We  will  endeavor 
to  decapitate  this  instinctive  gentleman  by  asking  you 
a  few  questions.  Is  it  instinct  that  causes  the  creep- 
ing vine  to  fasten  to  the  wall?  Is  it  instinct  that 
causes  the  young  quail  to  hide  from  danger?  Is  it 
instinct  that  causes  the  young  mother  trout  or  salmon 
to  jump  five  feet  out  of  running  water  over  rocks 
which  it  probably  never  saw  or  experienced  before  to 
find  a  suitable  place  to  spawn?  Finally,  is  it  instinct 
that  causes  one  atom  of  substance  to  deliberately  seek 
another  atom  of  substance  to  form  the  matter  of 


(  305  ) 

water;  that  is,  an  atom  of  the  substance  of  oxygen 
and  another  atom  of  hydrogen? 

Here  you  will  perceive  that  substance  and  matter 
are  two  separate  things ;  for,  while  they  are  in  a  phy- 
sical sense  inseparable,  like  force  and  motion,  yet, 
in  this  article,  if  we  wish  to  get  at  the  very  essence 
of  our  subject,  we  must  treat  them  as  two  distinct 
things — the  first  being  eternal  (at  least,  as  far  as  we 
know)  and  incapable  of  annihilation,  while  the  mat- 
ter of  WATER  is  subject  to  annihilation;  and  if  not, 
allow  us  to  ask  what  becomes  of  the  water  after  you 
take  away  the  substance  of  oxygen?  Is  not  water 
matter? 

Here  a  slight  explanation  is  necessary  to  the  stu- 
dent. We  have  generally  throughout  this  work  been 
accustomed  to  speak  of  matter  as  indestructible,  but 
have  done  so  to  simplify  our  remarks  to  you  in  our 
elementary  explanation,  and  had  reference  to  atomic 
f^ubstance ;  for,  at  the  early  stage  of  this  work  we  had 
n  I  brought  your  reason  sufficiently  forward,  nor  did 
we  deem  it  wise  at  that  time  to  segregate  the  two; 
also,  in  our  use  of  the  word  animation,  we  had  refer- 
ence to  motion  and  not  soul;  but  in  this  chapter  we 
shall  be  more  explicit. 

To  continue  our  subject  of  instinct,  you  will  see 
that  there  is  no  place  for  instinct  to  exist  only  in  im- 
agination ;  for  it  would  have  to  make  its  first  appear- 
ance after  change,  as  a  product  of  change ;  the  same 
as  experience  is  produced  only  from  and  after 
changes,  which  in  turn  produces  wisdom  of  the  spirit 
of  matter. 

You  will  now  observe  the  question  from  this  point 


(  306  ) 

of  view — that  matter  is  the  effect  or  result  of  a  union 
of  two  or  more  single  atoms  of  substance.  And  now, 
may  it  please  the  Court,  we  will  give  you  the  sub- 
stance  of  the  whole  matter;  that  is,  we  will  reduce  it 
to  its  last  subdivisional  part.  You  may  call  it  wis- 
dom, intuition,  or  instinct,  soul  or  spirit.  Man  only 
recognizes  these  attributes  by  their  effect  on  organ- 
ized substance;  but  before  substance  was  organized 
(a  joining  together  of  two  or  more  parts)  we  find 
positive  evidence  of  the  existence  of  a  think,  reason, 
and  intelligence,  in  the  fact  of  the  motion  in  the  atom. 
And,  as  reason  was  before  motion  and  before  organ- 
ism, therefore  before  matter ;  for  the  single  atom  of 
substance  proves  it  is  in  possession  of  intelligence 
which  is  the  effect  of  reason  which  is  again  the  effect 
of  a  think,  from  the  known  fact  that  it  moves  or 
changes  its  position  in  space  for  a  preconceived  pur- 
pose of  joining  forces  with  another  atom,  and  thereby 
establishes  the  very  first  move  or  motion  to  organize 
matter.  You  will  also  bear  in  mind  that  this  pre- 
cedence accompanies  all  kinds  of  organized  matter 
whatsoever,  for  the  atom  must  tJmik  before  start- 
ing on  a  journey  for  a  definite  purpose. 

WHAT  IS  A  SOUL? 

And,  as  it  is  the  experience  of  matter  that  produces 
wisdom  and  spirit,  and  spirit  produces  soul;  then, 
instead  of  soul  producing  animation,  which  existed 
before  and  is  the  cause  of  soul ;  then  animation  pro- 
duced soul,  and  not  soul  animation — just  the  reverse 
of  your  previous  teachings.  For  it  is  not  generally 
conceded  in  metaphysics  that  a  single  atom  of  sub- 


(  307  ) 

stance  is  a  body,  ot  at  least  not  an  organized  body; 
and  if  a  soul  has  an  existence,  it  must  be  something 
of  a  higher  order  than  the  least  of  all  known  things. 
Hence  it  must  be  the  effect  of  something  previous; 
and,  as  that  something  was  the  dawn  of  organized 
matter,  Avhich  is  your  first  recognitioin  of  a  body,  then 
the  body  is  before  the  soul.  And  if  the  body  existed 
before  the  soul,  what  quickened  it?  or  gave  power  to 
it  before  the  soul  made  its  appearance?    if  not  life? 

To  put  a  very  fine  point  to  it,  allow  us  to  ask  at 
what  precise  point  in  the  life  of  this  body  did  a  soul 
first  enter  it? 

In  this  analysis  of  ours,  we  are  trying  to  confine 
our  solution  icitJiin  the  boundary  of  human  compre- 
hension; that  is,  the  ultimate,  and  not  the  infinite. 
How  much  more  rational  it  would  read  that  the  body 
animates  the  soul,  instead  of  the  soul  animates  the 
body.  It  appears  that  reason  alone  would  suggest 
that  this  would  be  in  perfect  accord  with  the  order 
of  ceaseless  progression  or  evolution.  'T  is  true, 
physical  man  can  have  but  the  faintest  conception  of 
what  a  soul,  practically  speaking,  is.  And  when  you 
come  to  consider  that  the  soul  of  things  is  the  ulti- 
mate limit  of  human  comprehension  as  to  the  fullness 
of  the  future,  so  also  is  the  atom  the  limit  of  the  be- 
ginning of  things. 

This  investigation  of  the  subject,  we  find,  carries  us 
from  one  extreme  beginning  to  one  extreme  end,  and 
yet  does  not  compel  us,  for  a  practical  solution,  to  go 
outside  of  human  comprehension,  nor  is  it  at  variance 
with  all  the  known  laws  of  the  philosophy  of  evolu- 
tion or  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  but  leaves  the  chain 


C  308  ) 

of  facts  unbroken — i.  e.  the  body  is  responsible  for 
a  good  spirit  and  tlie  spirit  is  responsible  for  a  good 
soul. 

You  will  notice  that  in  this  article  we  have  paren- 
thesized the  question :  //  the7^€  is  a  soul.  And,  as  we 
have  frequently  remarked,  words  and  names  are  but 
man-made  and  are  merely  convenience  to  truth ;  and 
whether  the  name  of  soul  fits  that  condition  of  the 
state  of  the  "  I  am,"  after  it  has  passed  to  a  higher 
position  thau  the  spirit  world,  we  are  unable  to  in- 
form you.  All  that  the  denizens  of  the  spirit  world 
can  positively  inform  you  of  is,  that  we  occasionally 
miss  from  among  us  the  presence  of  those  highly  ad- 
vanced spirits  whom  we  have  been  accustomed  to  rec- 
ognize as  wise  teachers  to  us  of  lower  degree.  But, 
while  we  miss  them  in  ])erson,  the  same  as  you  of  the 
earth  miss  your  physical  friends  at  the  passage  yon 
call  death,  yet  we,  the  lower  spirits,  can  and  do  hold 
communication  with  them,  which  is  evidence  of  a 
state  of  being  beyond  the  spirit  world,  the  same  as  the 
fact  that  we,  the  spirits,  can  communicate  with  you 
is  evidence  to  you  of  a  state  of  being  beyond  the  grave. 
Man  recognizes  the  existence  of  life  by  its  effect  on 
matter.  As  we  trace  this  effect  to  cause,  we  find  that 
the  last  or  ultimate  of  human  comprehension  is  a 
single  thought.  This  would  tend  to  show  that  life 
and  thought  were,  as  far  as  human  comprehension 
goes,  synonymous  terms.  At  any  rate,  it  is  the  very 
first  conception  of  an  existing  thing  previous  to 
thought,  which  we  call  Life,  God,  or  the  Infinite. 

Can  man,  by  searching,  find  out  God?  No.  Now, 
let  us,  for  the  purpose  of  illustration,  call  this  the 


(  309  ) 

first  recognized  appearance  of  tlie  I  AM.  What  do 
you  first  recognize?  Why,  a  thought.  Then,  in  tlie 
so-called  beginning  was  thought  the  least  and  yet  the 
greatest  of  all  known  things. 

Now,  take  the  other  extreme  end,  as  you  pass 
through  or  enter  on  to  the  passage  which  you  call 
death,  you  seem  to  miss  your  thoughts  (life.)  Sor- 
rowing friends  exclaim ;  "  He  is  dying."  When  you 
find  you  have  made  the  change  into  spirit,  what  is 
the  first  thing  you  recognize?  Thought,  the  I  A3I 
(life).  When,  as  spirit,  you  reach  out  and  attempt 
to  grasp  soul,  what  do  you  first  recognize?  Thought 
or  life,  only  this,  and  nothing  more.  Here  we  find 
that,  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  so  it  is  in  the  end ; 
for  from  thought  we  came  and  unto  thought  do  we  re- 
turn. We  are  speaking  now  in  what  you  may  call  a 
literal  sense  of  only  that  which  your  physical  senses 
can  recognize,  or,  at  least,  as  nearly  literal  as  meta- 
physics will  admit. 

Here  we  feel  that  we  are  again  obliged  to  repeat 
in  order  that  the  student  may  not  lose  sight  of  the 
main  object  sought — i.  e.  the  first  comprehensive 
cause  of  existence. 

If  out  of  nothing  nothing  comes,  and,  as  we  know 
that  something  does  exist,  all  that  finite  man  can  pos- 
sibly do,  in  searching  backwards  (in  our  opinion, 
ahem!)  is  to  trace  from  effect  to  cause  in  the  order 
we  have  here  followed  where  we  find  that  we  are  com- 
pelled to  halt  when  we  arrive  at  a  think,  the  repre- 
sentative of  life  and  limit  of  human  comijrehension ; 
for,  did  man  have  the  power  to  comprehend  the  infi- 
nite, and  you  assume,  as  a  postulate,  that  out  of  noth- 


f 


iiKlivur^ 


(  310  ) 

ing  nothing  comes,  then  there  never  could  have  been 
a  time  or  place  of  a  state  of  nothingness.  But,  by  so 
assuming,  you  are  absolutely  compelled  to  admit  that 
thought  and  substance  always  existed.  You  may 
probably  comprehend  us  better  when  we  say  that  if 
an  ideal  being,  or  an  ideal  condition,  was  the  cause  of 
life,  then  this  ideal  would  have  had  to  exist  as  a  some- 
thing previous,  which  would  carry  you  ad  infinitum, 
and  then  leave  the  finger-board  pointing  to  something 
still  previous.  However,  we  are  not  speculating  in 
the  ideals  or  "  must  have  beens,"  but  the  limit  of  prac- 
tical comprehension  and  are  perfectly  willing  to  leave 
the  speculative  to  the  theologian. 


(311) 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

(Mar.  10,  1898.) 

DESCARTES.     VORTEX.      VERSES.      NEWTON^S  GRAVITY. 

Question:  Is  the  Cartesian  law  of  vortex  or  the 
Newton  law  of  gravity  the  nearest  to  correct?  Ans. 
If  the  earth  is,  as  we  suppose,  a  liquid  or  plastic  mass 
on  the  interior,  its  centrifugal  force  would  be  more 
than  sufficient  to  overcome  its  centripetal  force  or 
gravitation  attraction,  were  there  no  other  forces  act- 
ing against  it.  Many  investigators  claim  that  the 
flattening  at  the  poles  is  the  result  of  the  difference 
in  temperature. 

If  man  were  not  so  hasty  in  jumping  at  his  conclu- 
sions, he  would  look  deeper  and  satisfy  hiniself  wheth- 
er or  no  there  might  not  be  other  forces  at  work  in 
the  long  lapse  of  time  that  were  slowly  at  work  to  ac- 
complish the  same  result.  Now,  let  us  peep  a  little 
deeper  into  the  Newton  law  of  centripetal  force  or 
gravity  by  asking  what  is  this  law ;  what  causes  your 
so-called  centripetal  force?  Is  it  anything  more  or 
less  than  that  which  we  have  described  as  sympa- 
thetic attraction  or  that  life  principle  in  tha  single 
atom  that  first  gave  to  it  force  and  motion? 

Centripetal,  forsooth !  Allow  us  to  ask :  is  it  cen- 
tripetal force  that  holds  your  physical  body  together 
and  all  other  objects  of  growth?  If  this  were  so,  that 
it  Avere  a  merely  mechanical  force  or  a  question  of 


(  312  ) 

foot  pounds,  i.  e.,  a  definite  or  given  force  acting  on  a 
given  quantity  of  matter  and  a  centrifugal  force  were 
acting  in  the  opposite  direction  and  thereby  establish- 
ing a  balance  of  forces  to  such  a  nicety  that  man 
is  unable  at  this  late  date  of  centuries  on  top  of  cen- 
turies, to  distinguish  any  fractional  increase  or  dim- 
inution of  this  globe,  then  why  does  not  this  same  cen- 
trifugal force  prevent  an  increase  in  the  bulk  of  a 
man's  body? 

We  will  admit  that  heat  has  a  tendency  to  expand 
a  body  up  to  a  certain  mechanical  per  cent. ;  that  is, 
a  given  amount  of  heat,  when  applied  to  different  sub- 
stances, affects  their  expansion  in  different  amounts 
and  that  this  is  a  known  quantity.  But  you  must 
acknowledge  that  centrifugal  force  is  a  known  quan- 
tity and,  like  heat,  is  governed  by  purely  mechanical 
or  physical  law ;  and  you  will  perceive  that  when  you 
apply  this  to  such  an  immense  plastic  body  as  the 
earth  at  the- equator  that  the  centripetal  force  is  but 
a  trifle  when  reckoned  as  a  counter  force. 

"  But,"  say  the  Newtonians,  "  we  have  also  the  cen- 
tripetal force  of  the  sun  to  assist  us."  This  is  an  er- 
ror, for  the  sun  does  not  exert  any  cohesive  force  on 
the  at  IS  that  form  the  earth's  body  of  matter.  Cen- 
trifugicj  force  is  derived  from  a  body  rotating  on  its 
own  center  or  a  rotary  motion  and  in  no  sense  is  its 
cohesive  force  affected  by  its  revolving  motion  around 
some  other  body.  Again,  Mr.  Newton  tells  us  thai 
the  earth  is  receiving  a  force  of  gravity  (we  believe  he 
calls  it  all  gravity)  from  those  spheres  lying  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  earth  from  the  sun  and  that  this 
force  it  is  that  holds  the  earth  in  its  present  orbit. 


(  313  ) 

We  have  but  to  call  your  attention  to  one  fact  in  this 
case  that  is  recognized  as  such  by  all  philosophers, 
which  is,  that  Descartes,  long  before  Newton's  time, 
advocated  the  vortex  theory  as  the  active  force  in 
holding  this  world  in  its  orbit.  This  is  known  as  the 
Cartesian  theory.  In  Descartes'  time,  the  printing 
press  was  a  very  expensive  luxury,  which  made  it  dif- 
ficult for  him  to  place  his  work  before  the  public ;  but 
Newton,  a  little  later,  being  English,  succeeded 
mostl}^  through  English  pride  in  securing  the  ear  and 
press  of  the  English  speaking  people;  and,  as  at  that 
time,  England  was  taking  the  lead  in  literature,  New- 
ton's theory  became,  more  by  this  means  than  by  the 
intrinsic  value  of  his  theory  being  correct,  the  Siccept- 
ed  doctrine.  Descartes'  French  admirers  at  the  time 
and  even  to-day  have  challenged  the  correctness  of 
Newton's  law  in  what  we  consider  a  most  emphatic 
manner  by  asking  Mr.  Newton  a  simple  question : 
"  If  this  world  is  held  in  its  present  position  in  space 
by  the  sun  on  one  side  and  by  the  planets  on  the  op- 
posite side,  as  a  counter  force,  thoi  what  hou  hose 
outer  planets  in  their  place?  ^^ 

We  consider  that  Newton's  law  of  gravity  was  sim- 
ply forced  onto  the  public,  not  by  its  real  merit  so 
much  as  by  what  is  equivalent  to  brute  force,  or  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  Church  endeavored  to  prove  Gali- 
leo wrong,  i.  e.,  ''  renounce  it  or  follow  Bruno."  In 
the  one  case,  it  was  that  kind  of  force  better  known  in 
America  as  the  "political  pull,"  ye  know;  in  the 
other,  pure  and  simple  brute  force  of  burning  fagots. 

While  the  shrinkage  of  the  crust  of  the  earth  at  the 
poles  is  in  a  slight  measure  caused  by  the  difference 


(  314  ) 

of  temperature  the  principal  cause  is  the  centrifugal 
force  of  the  earth  which  takes  up  the  difference  in 
shrinkage  of  the  crust  as  the  earth  is  gradually  cool- 
ing from  a  liquid  to  a  solid  state.  Now,  while  we  find 
much  of  Newton's  law  of  inestimable  value  to  truth 
so  do  we  find  much  truth  in  the  vortex  theory;  but 
neither  theory  has  all  the  truths  and  it  is  just  barely 
possible  that  Mr.  Newton,  in  order  to  secure  the  ear 
of  the  public  at  that  time,  found  it  advisable  not  to 
antagonize  Laplace's  great  sun  theory. 

PHYSICAL     OR     MECHANICAL     FORCE     VERSUS     ATOMIC 

ENERGY. 

While  it  is  highly  proper  to  keep  a  jealous  eye  on 
those  forces  recognized  among  you  as  physical  forces, 
or  perhaps  we  may  be  better  understood  if  we  say  in 
conjunction  with  this  article,  mechanical  forces;  yet, 
in  weighing  the  evidence  as  regards  to  the  power  that 
is  holding  this  w^orld  in  its  place,  we  claim  that  the 
question  has  not  as  yet  been  settled,  therefore  we  shall 
take  the  liberty  of  advancing  our  theory. 

It  is  a  very  common  thing  for  man  to  assert  that 
he  has  created  or  made  a  certain  force  through  this  or 
that  combination.  This  is  entirely  wrong.  You  can 
neither  make  nor  destroy  one  particle  of  force  any 
more  than  you  can  destroy  substance;  for  force,  act- 
ing on  substance,  is  the  means  by  which  life  expresses 
itself  to  man  or  matter.  In  other  words,  force, 
thought,  and  substance  is  life  itself;  and,  as  we 
have  elsewhere  stated  that  thought  was  the  first 
representative  of  life  by  producing  reason  and 
intelligence   in   one   direction,    so   do   we   advocate 


(  315  ) 

that  energy  is  the  first  representative  of  life  by 
pl'oducing  force,  motion,  and  change;  and,  as 
we  think  that  we  have  clearly  and  comprehensively 
established  as  a  known  fact  that  these  attributes  of 
so-called  life  are  what  constitutes  the  infinite,  though 
living  beyond  the  reach  of  human  comprehension, 
yet  man  actually  knows  for  a  fact  that  they  do 
have  an  existence,  and  that  beyond  this  fact,  he  has 
no  further  knowledge,  but  all  is  pure  and  simple  con- 
jecture. 

As  the  object  of  this  work,  from  the  very  start  has 
been  to  strictly  confine  our  investigations  within  the 
boundary  of  only  that  which  we  knoiv  and  endeavor  to 
harmonize  and  apply  a  rational  cause  to  all  effect, 
therefore  we  feel  ourselves  justified  in  asserting  that, 
as  all  substance  in  the  atomic  form  first  existed  and 
was  first  acted  upon  by  thought ^  reason  and  intelli- 
gence, when  secondly  this  intelligence  then  prompted 
this  atom  of  substance  to  join  another  atom  for  a  def- 
inite purpose,  but,  being  unable  to  produce  motion  to 
carry  out  this  purpose,  it — this  so-called  inert  sub- 
stance— was  compelled  to  call  to  its  assistance  en- 
ergy. Now  if  energy  was  not  a  co-existing  thing  witli 
substance — hence  equalhj  infinite — then  where,  may 
we  ask,  did  substance  get  its  force  from  to  produce 
motion?  For  the  atom  of  substance  had  to  first  move 
before  it  could  join  another  atom  and  by  this  union 
we  have  our  first  knowledge  of  matter  or  organism. 

(The  student  will  probably  better  understand  us  at 
this  point  when  we  say  that  you  can  segregate  the 
substance  of  most  matter  and  thereby  arrive  at  its 
component  parts,  but  you  would  find  it  somewhat 


(  316  ) 

difficult  to  separate  the  matter  from  tlie  substance 
and  still  have  a  remainder. ) 

Here  you  will  preceive  that  force  is  a  thing  inde- 
pendent of  substance  but  not  independent  of  matter ; 
for  it  is  by  the  consent  of  force  that  matter  exists. 
This  being  the  case,  we  will  ask :  "  What  do  you  know 
of  force  of  itself?  What  is  it  composed  of?  "  You 
see  that  you  find  yourself  as  devoid  of  knowledge  as 
to  force  as  you  do  of  life.  You  are  only  aware  of  its 
existence  by  its  effect  on  matter.  Hence  we  make  the 
assertion  that  thought  and  force  are  what  constitute 
life,  and  that  this  life  occupies  all  space  by  a  prior 
right  of  possession  and  that  it  is  the  only  thing  that 
holds  all  forms  or  objects  together  and  does  so  in- 
dependent of  what  we  call  mechanical  forces,  such  as 
centripetal  and  centrifugal  force;  for  this  kind  of 
force  is  produced  from  matter  acting  on  or  in  con- 
junction with  matter^  something  after  the  nature  of 
sympathetic  attraction. 

The  Cartesian  theory  of  a  vortex  is  also  correct  so 
far  as  the  circular  motion  is  produced.  To  illustrate : 
Let  two  cannon  balls  meet  while  moving  in  opposite 
directions.  The  mechanical  force  at  the  instant  of 
impact  is  a  whirling  or  vortex  motion  before  it 
assumes  a  straight  line,  the  same  as  two  bodies  of 
wind,  for  the  very  first  instant  or  atomical  fraction  of 
time  that  force  is  applied  to  a  so-called  inert  body  it 
is  diffused  all  over  the  body  by  a  whirling  motion. 
The  force  that  keeps  this  world  in  a  spherical  form  is 
applied  in  the  vortex  form.    So  much  for  vortex. 

But  force  urns  hefo7^e,  and  was  the  cause  of  vortex, 
the  motion  being  only  the  expression  of  force.    What 


(  317  ) 

we  T^'ould  be  understood  to  mean  by  this  is,  that  at  the 
first  instant  of  time  that  force  attempts  to  manifest 
its  presence  on  substances  or  matter,  it  begins  by  a 
rotary  whirling  or  vortex  motion. 

As  all  space  is  already  filled,  we  may  say,  to  the 
brim,  with  force,  then  you  could  not  produce  any  more 
or  any  less.  You  would  have  to  go  outside  of  space  for 
your  raw  material,  and  if  you  think  you  can  reduce 
the  quantity,  pray  tell  us  where  you  would  deposit 
that  which  you  abstract.  Infinite  space  and  the 
spheres  may  be  likened  to  the  ocean  and  its  family  of 
fish  and  other  organized  bodies  that  have  their  growth 
within  its  depths.  All  their  wants  are  supplied  by 
this  parent,  the  sea.  The  sea  or  world  in  turn  is  the 
inhabitant  of  space  in  which  it  finds  all  that  is  re- 
quisite for  its  maintenance  and,  like  all  other  organ- 
isms, each  requires  its  own  peculiar  diet  wherein 
thought  is  the  nurse,  substance  the  food,  and  force 
the  modus  operandi. 

We  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  what,  at  the  first 
glance,  may  seem  an  inconsistency  in  our  general 
hypothesis  as  regards  to  our  use  of  the  terms  mechani- 
cal force  and  infinite  force.  Our  object  in  producing 
this  work  was  to  build  a  bridge  that  should  show  you 
there  was  no  gulf  between  the  ponderable  or  material 
world  and  the  imponderable  or  immaterial  world; 
therefore  we  are  using  the  term  mechanical  force  as 
representing  Newton  and  Descartes'  physical  force; 
or,  as  mechanical  force  represents  or  is  applied  to 
matter  and  infinite  force  as  applied  to  the  atoms  of 
substance — holding  as  we  do  that  substance  was  be- 
fore matter  and  that  after  matter  was  produced  as  a 


(  S18  ) 

secondary  result  of  a  previous  cause  there  was  also, 
by  the  production  of  matter,  a  secondary  production 
of  force  or  energy,  which  is  physical,  mechanical,  or 
Descartes'  beginning  of  mathematics. 

We  hope  you  will  perceive  how  necessary  it  is  that 
you  should  not  be  too  exacting  in  your  criticism  of 
our  poverty  of  words  and  try  and  utilize  the  spirit  of 
our  remarks. 

For  this,  it  appears  to  us,  was  where  both  Newton 
and  Descartes  stumbled ;  Newton,  in  failing  to  recog- 
nize the  fact  that  anything  existed  beyond  so-called 
physical  matter  and  yet  asserting  as  an  axiom  that 
third  law  that  "  for  all  and  every  action,  there  is  an' 
equal  reaction,"  and  then  failing  to  explain  by  this 
law  what  reaction  it  is  that  is  acting  on  the  outermost 
planet.  His  materialistic  tendencies,  we  fear,  warped 
his  better  judgment  and  compelled  him  to  put  for- 
ward his  first  law  of  inertia^  for  mechanical  calcula- 
tions. His  term  inert  may  be  sufficiently  correct 
when  applied  to  matter  if  we  consider  that  matter  is 
the  beginning  of  physics  only!  But  our  object  is  to 
try  and  advance  further  and  show  you  that  meta- 
physics is  merely  a  continuation  of  physics.  Yet 
inertia  is  certainly  not  an  axiom.  You  will  observe 
that  we  have  used  the  term  inanimation  in  lieu  of 
inertia,  and  we  insist  on  the  truth  of  our  assertion 
that  all  life,  all  substance,  all  matter,  and  all  thought 
is  in  ceaseless  motion. 

Was  is  for  creed  or  blind  devotion 
This  whale  was  brought  from  out  the  ocean? 
Here  Newton  blundered  in  his  notion, 
lor  what 's  inert  Avhen  all 's  in  motion? 


(319  ) 

Descartes,  in  his  reply  to  Princess  Elizabeth,  we 
think  shows  his  inability  to  connect  the  physical  with 
the  metaphysical  when  he  asserts  that  "  the  matter 
attributed  to  thought  is  not  thought  itself  and  that 
the  extension  of  this  matter  is  quite  different  from 
the  extension  of  thought."  And  yet,  in  the  face  of  this 
assertion,  he  holds  that  the  soul  is  united  to  all  parts 
of  the  body,  but  fails  to  identify  the  two  substances. 

It  vrould  appear  to  us  that,  while  Newton  may  have 
been  slightly  influenced  in  his  materialistic  ideas  in 
one  direction,  that  just  so,  had  Decartes  a  weather 
eye  on  those  burning  fagots  (for  it  required  a  brave 
man  to  attempt  to  fill  Bruno's  shoes  in  those  days) 
when  he  makes  the  following  remarks :  "  The 
particles  of  matter  to  which  the  Creator  originally 
imparted  rectilinear  motion,  are  distributed  in  vorti- 
ces forming  stars.  The  material  world  is  a  machine, 
an  indefinite  chain  of  movements,  the  origin  of  which 
is  in  God.^' 

Here  we  find  that  Descartes  is  still  wedded  to  that 
old  traditional  creative  God,  that  great  personal 
something,  to  account  for  a  first  cause,  which  leaves 
him,  like  all  the  rest,  floundering  in  the  mud  until 
they  produce  some  tangible  evidence  of  the  existence 
of  such  a  being,  sun,  ideal  thought,  force  or  soul  of 
things.  The  trouble  has  been  that  all  of  your 
old  school  of  philosophers  leave  a  gap  in  their 
philosophy  by  first  beginning  with  the  acknowledg- 
ment that  there  is  or  was  a  previous  first  cause  from 
^^  hich  all  came  and  to  which  all  return,  for  which  they 
offer  you  no  evidence;  and  then  they  find  it  con- 
venient to  jump  this  gap  and  begin  again  at  physics, 


(  320  ) 

matter  or  Mr.  Huxley's  protoplasm.  Here  they  take 
oif  tJieir  coats,  roll  up  their  sleeves  and  begin  with 
"  ex  niliilo,  nihil  fit"  But  to-day  modern  thought 
call?  for  this  gap  to  be  bridged,  and  whether  we  have 
succeeded  any  better  than  the  old  school  of  thought 
by  and  with  the  assistance  of  such  additional  knowl- 
edge as  has  been  developed  within  the  last  half 
century  through  the  spirit  phenomena  is  for  you  to 
decide  for  yourself. 

OUR  RESPECTS  TO  DESCARTES. 

We  feel  that  we  should  not  drop  this  subject  with- 
out a  kind  word  for  Descartes,  and  will  begin  by  tak- 
ing our  sun.  Around  the  sun  revolves  our  solar  sys- 
tem of  bodies  in — we  will  say — a  vortex  whirl ;  then 
around  one  of  these  bodies,  for  the  purpose  of  illus- 
tratiiig,  we  will  select  the  earth,  is  revolving  the  moon 
in  a  vortex.  Again,  around  the  moon  are  revolving 
other  smaller  T^odies,  and  still  we  find  the  vortex,  and 
around  these  revolve  yet  smaller  bodies.  Now  con- 
tinue this  principle  on  down,  down  to  the  very  single 
spherical  atom.  This  atom  attracts  another  atom. 
May  not  the  condition  and  position  of  these  two 
atoms  just  before  a  junction  is  effected  be  a  revolving 
motion  of  the  one  around  the  other,  but  gradually 
drawing  closer  together  until  a  union  is  formed, 
when,  by  this  union  of  two  atoms  of  substance,  they 
become  the  embryo  of  an  organized  body  of  matter? 
Now,  if  this  be  the  physical  condition  of  substance  in 
its  first  evolutionary  advance  into  matter,  we  would 
ask  you  to  try  and  surround  our  sun  and  its  solar 


(321  ) 

system  of  a  wheel  around  a  wheel,  would  not  this,  as 
a  whole  body,  be  the  very  essence  of  a  vortex  or  whirl- 
ing motion?  Then,  if  we  have  advanced  a  reasonable 
theory  backward  from  the  sun  to  the  atom,  would  it 
not  appear  that  our  sun  was  but  one  of  the  minor 
wheels  of  a  still  larger  system,  and  so  on  to  infinity? 

The  student  should  bear  in  mind  that  Descartef?, 
when  advancing  the  vortex  theory,  did  not  stop  at  Mr. 
Huxley's  protoplasm,  i.  e.,  the  first  physical  recogni- 
tion of  an  organism  in  the  form  of  a  celly  and  then 
jump  to  the  conclusion  that  he  had  discovered  the 
physical  basis  of  life.  But  Descartes  easily  recognized 
that  a  cell,  in  however  small  a  boundary  or  space  you 
may  find  it,  is  but  a  vast  accumulation  of  atoms  which 
proved  their  previous  possession  of  life  when  they  dis- 
played thought^  forcCj  motion  and  intelligence  in 
coming  together  in  space  to  produce  this  very  cell. 
For  a  cell  must  be  possessed  of  a  bottom  and  sides ; 
hence  is  subject  to  division  and  commensuration. 

So,  my  friend,  you  will  preceive  that,  while  your 
so-called  up-to-date  modern  philosophers  may  not  be 
too  severely  condemned  if  they,  like  the  common  run 
of  the  genus  Homo,  should  think  that  those  old  fogies 
were  somewhat  fossilized  in  their  researches  after  the 
cause  of  things ;  yet  we  find  such  minds  as  Descartes 
had  already  passed  far  beyond  Mr.  Huxley's  halfway 
house  of  the  cell  or  protoplasm  when  he  points  out 
to  us  the  vortex  that  formed  the  matter  of  the  cell. 
As  we  have  maintained  from  the  start  that  it  is  no 
I^art  of  our  work  to  chase  a  will-o'-the-wisp  by  a  claim 
of  omniscience,yet  we  are  free  born  and  part  white  and 
have  a  habit' of  endeavoring  to  penetrate  even  that 


(  322  ) 

which  to-day  may  appear  as  inscrutable  even  to  Mr. 
Davidson. 

How  shall  we  proceed  if  not  by  inquiry?  Thus: 
Is  Mr.  Huxley's  protoplasm  or  cell  an  existing  fact? 
Answer :  Yes.  Was  this  cell  produced  by  or  through 
the  Cartesian  vortex?  Answer:  Yes.  Was  this  vor- 
tex or  whirling  motion  the  result  or  expression  of 
force?  Is  not  energy  oi  force  directed  by  thought, 
and  is  not  thought,  at  the  present  stage  of  evolution^ 
the  limit  of  *human  comprehension  of  life  as  expressed 
to  man? 

If  this  be  the  truth,  you  will  perceive  that  it  is  not 
necessary  for  man  to  possess  one  of  the  attributes  of 
omniscience,  nor  yet  attempt  to  penetrate  the  so- 
called  inscrutable  or  cross  the  dead-line  of  infinite  in 
order  to  know  and  to  comprehend  that  the  beginning 
of  things  starts  from  the  atom  of  life  and  substance, 
and,  by  becoming  united,  they,  the  atoms,  are  the 
cause  of  all  things  that  are  greater  than  a  single 
atom,  even  though  the  thing  may  assume  the  condi- 
tion of  a  very  God,  a  great  sun  or  ideal  being.  While, 
up  to  the  atom,  we  shall  claim  that  we  have  kept  upon 
the  debatable  ground  of  the  first  cause  of  things,  yet 
we  are  free  to  admit  that  beyond  this  point  it  would 
appear  to  us  that  man  must  necessarily  enter  the  field 
of  inscrutability. 


(  323  ) 


CHAPTER  XXXYIII. 
PLACING   THE  KEYSTONE. 

Hoping  that  we  have  succeeded  in  molding  your 
understanding  up  to  the  question  as  to  whether  there 
is  in  existence  such  a  thing  as  Life,  we  feel  justified 
at  this  point  in  our  philosophy  in  answering  you  in 
the  negative  and  Avill  endeavor  to  support  our  position 
in  this  manner: — 

If  you  will  assume  that  all  force  and  all  thought 
have  been  annihilated  from  out  of  space,  what  then 
may  we  ask  would  stand  or  be  presented  to  your 
understanding  as  an  expression  of  life? 

Mr.  Newton's  law  of  inertia,  that  for  every  ex- 
pressed force  there  is  a  counter  force,  is  perfectly  cor- 
rect when  applied  to  matter, — i.  e.,  physical  matter, — 
but  no  further.  To  this  extent,  as  we  have  already 
stated,  it  is  purely  a  mechanical  question  of  foot- 
pounds. But  this  fact  in  physics  does  not  explain  or 
account  for  the  existence  of  force  previous  to  the 
existence  of  matter. 

All  physical  matter  has  form,  and  as  a  form  it  is 
subject  to  commensuration, — i.  e.,  it  must  have  length, 
breadth,  and  thickness. 

Length  is  a  space  betw^een  ttvo  points;  an  atom  of 
substance  can  only  come  within  human  comprehen- 
sion as  one  point  without  distance, — for  if  it  had  dis- 


(  324  ) 

tance  or  extension  it  would  be  again  subject  to  divis- 
ion; therefore,  it  must  be  without  form. 

(As  we  have  already  explained  to  you  our  object  in 
using  the  term  matter  in  the  early  part  of  this  work 
in  lieu  of  substance,  so  do  we  explain  our  object  in 
calling  an  atom  spherical.)  Here  you  will  see  that 
while  substance  in  the  atomic  state  occupies  all  space, 
it  is  without  form ;  and  as  the  atom  is  not  measure  or 
commensuration  in  itself,  but  only  the  beginning  of 
them,  so  also  does  all  space  represent  the  other  ex- 
treme end  of  commensuration.  But  it  is  not  the  three 
or  any  part  of  the  three  dimensions,  as  it  is  certainly 
beyond  commensuration. 

The  fact  that  the  atoms  move  toward  each  other  for 
a  purpose  is  absolute  evidence  of  the  presence  of 
thought  and  force.  But  how  any  sane  man  can  assume 
the  presence  of  a  third  factor  as  existing  previous  to 
thought  (or  substance)  and  force,  and  give  it  the 
name  of  a  definite  thing,  such  as  Life,  and  yet  be  un- 
able to  advance  any  solvable  evidence  of  such  pres- 
ence, is  beyond  our  comprehension. 

Again,  we  would  suggest  that  if  you  take  away  your 
thought,  which  is  the  parent  of  reason  and  the  grand- 
parent of  intelligence,  what  is  there  left  of  you  or  the 
I  AM  worth  the  preserving? 

Physically  speaking,  or  as  a  so-called  disembodied 
spirit,  how  would  you  establish  your  identity  to  your 
earth-friends,  taking  it  for  granted  that  intelligent 
spirit  communication  is  an  established  fact? 

In  our  use  of  the  term  Life  in  the  early  part  of  this 
work,  such  as  atomic  life,  object  life,  over-life,  etc.,  we 
will  admit  that  we  lead  the  student  to  infer  that  there 


(  325  ) 

teas  such  an  existing  thing ^  and  that  it  was  separate 
and  apart  from  any  other  thing,  Avhich  would  cause  it 
to  appear  to  one  who  only  studied  from  a  superficial 
point  of  view  that  the  preceding  chapter  on  Gravity 
would  leave  our  philosophy  in  a  paradoxical  position. 

In  order  to  remove  any  such  impression,  we  will  say 
that  any  advocate  who  starts  out  to  promulgate  such 
a  radically  revolutionary  and  heterodoxical  philoso- 
phy of  Evolution,  if  he  wishes  to  have  and  to  hold  the 
attention  of  his  audience  (i.  e.  to  have  them  to  under- 
stand his  remarks),  he  should  address  them  in  such 
language  as  they  have  inherited. 

In  other  Avords,  it  is  conceded  that,  in  order  to  be 
a  successful  diplomat,  you  must  first  approach  your 
opponent  by  admitting  that  his  views  are  correct  by 
convincing  him  that  he  entertains  precisely  the  same 
view  of  the  subject  under  consideration  as  yourself. 

Then  the  only  apparent  difference  is  in  the  position 
that  each  occupies  at  the  moment  of  observation,  and, 
if  he  was  compelled  by  circumstances  over  which  he 
had  no  control  during  his  youthful  education  to  oc- 
cupy his  present  position,  the  stahility  of  such  posi- 
tion must  be  determined  by  the  evidence  of  such  axio- 
matic facts  as  are  presented  for  all  human  considera- 
tion such  as — 

First :  Is  it  not  now  a  conceded  fact  that  Thought 
is  a  definite  existing  thing,  and  has  extension? 

Second :  Does  not  force  have  an  absolute  existence 
apart  from  thought  and  substance? 

Third :  Does  not  substance  in  infinite  division  have 
an  existence  and  occupy  all  space,  independent  of 
thought  and  force? 


(  326  ) 

Again :  Are  not  the  three  capable  of  demonstrating 
their  physical  presence  to  man  by  a  practical  applica- 
tion of  his  senses? 

Now  follows  the  question :  Is  life  a  thing  that  is 
capable  of  proving  its  existence  as  an  entity  apart 
from  force,  thought,  and  substance?  Or,  rather,  is  it 
not  the  effect  or  expression  of  the  three  first  named 
when  acting  in  combination,  and,  like  water  and 
atmosphere,  owes  its  present  existence  to  the  consent 
or  cause  of  some  thing  previous, — i.  e.  merely  the  pro- 
duct of  something  else  and  not  the  producer — the 
effect,  and  not  the  cause. 

Ten  years  ago,  or  about  the  beginning  of  1890,  it 
was  that  we  first  had  the  pleasure  of  your  acquaint- 
ance, and,  knowing  your  exceeding  desire  for  a  practi- 
cal explanation  of  spirit  phenomena,  we  recognized 
that,  in  beginning  our  explanations  of  the  cause  of 
things,  it  would  be  necessary  for  us  to  use  diplomacy. 
Now,  as  one  of  the  difficulties  would  be  to  find  a  word 
or  term  that  would  the  most  quickly  and  clearly  con- 
vey to  you  the  simple  truth  as  we  found  it  to  exist, 
it  wouldrequireustofrequently  makeuseof  terms  that, 
while  they  did  not  contain  the  absolute  essence  of  such 
facts  as  we  wished  to  convey  to  you,  yet,  we  hope,  they 
still  answered  the  purpose  or  object  of  the  particular 
subject  then  under  consideration. 

Having  advanced  so  far  in  our  work  as  to  find  you 
prepared  to  receive  our  assertion  as  to  the  non-exist- 
ence of  Life  as  an  entity  without  too  great  a  shock  to 
what  may  remain  of  your  orthodoxy,  and  still  being 
unable  to  coin  the  proper  words  to  clearly  convey  this 
truth,  we  will  endeavor  to  do  so  by  illustration. 


(  327  ) 

For  instance :  Imagine  yourself  standing  just  out- 
side of  space  and  facing  so-called  creation.  What  is 
the  first  thing  vou  perceive?  All  space.  What  next 
appeals  to  your  sense  of  comprehension?  Thought^ 
force,  and  substance;  or  nature  divided  into  three 
separate  and  distinct  infinite  entities^  each  divided 
into  its  last  unit  One,  yet  working  harmoniously 
together  and  for  a  purpose :  But,  search  as  you  may, 
you  find  nothing  beyond  or  previous  to  these.  Then 
you  can  but  come  to  the  conclusion  that  these  three 
entities,  so  far  as  human  understanding  goes,  are  the 
very  germ,  spark,  or  embryo  of  all  other  expressions ; 
whether  it  be  in  the  nature  of  Life,  conscience,  will, 
spirit,  or  matter  of  form. 

While  we  have  been  compelled  to  apply  the  term 
imponderable  substance  to  thought,  spirit,  and  soul 
for  the  want  of  a  word  that  you  could  comprehend, 
you  now  perceive  that  Thought  and  Force  have  an 
infinite  existence  with  substance  and,  as  they  exist, 
they  must  be  something  other  than  substance. 

There  may  come  a  time  in  the  far-distant  future 
when  man  and  spirit  shall  know  what  they  are  com- 
posed of;  but  all  that  is  known  of  them  to-day  is 
that  they  do  exist  as  primary  elementals,  and  are  not 
subject  to  annihilation. 

Man  in  his  self-importance  is  inclined  to  think  that 
the  only  thought  in  existence  is  human  thought.  As 
well  might  he  claim  that  the  only  force  is  human 
force  or  the  only  substance  human  substance. 

Now,  please  st-op  here  and  allow  us  to  ask:  What 
do  yon  Jtnoir  as  an  actual  fact  as  to  the  composition 
of  either  thought,  force,  or  substance  in  its  elementary 


(  328  ) 

condition, — i.  e.  when  brought  to  its  last  ultimate 
division  of  the  atom?  Can  the  physical  senses  recog- 
nize either  one  of  the  three  other  than  by  inference/ 

You  see  a  comet's  tail,  and  infer  that  it  is  composed 
of  particles  of  substance  in  the  atomic  condition  be- 
cause it  appeals  to  your  sense  of  sight,  while  none  of 
your  other  senses  recognize  it;  and  if  your  inference 
is  logically  correct,  then  you  are  by  this  inferential 
law  compelled  to  recognize  that  each  atom  or  particle 
is  moved  in  its  definite  course  by  an  atom  of  force ;  for 
you  only  recognize  atomic  force  by  this  one  sense  of 
sight  -i.  e.  you  see  the  tail,  and  see  it  in  motion,  for 
you  can  neither  smell,  taste,  touch,  or  hear  it.  There- 
fore, if  you  have  a  logical  right  to  infer  the  one,  you 
cannot  reject  the  other ;  and  if  so  far  our  philosophy 
is  correct,  then  it  would  appear  to  us  that  as  this  tail 
or  the  body  was  moving  in  a  definite  direction  for  a 
specific  purpose,  we  have  the  unqualified  right  to  also 
infer  that  this  establishes  the  fact  of  an  intelligence 
in  atomic  form  which  is  accompanying  and  directing 
the  atomic  force;  and  as  we  further  infer  from  our 
experience  and  knowledge  of  physical  force  as  we  see 
its  effects  on  ponderable  bodies  of  matter,  that  it  of 
itself y  like  the  matter,  displays  no  evidence  of  thought 
or  intelligence. 

Even  when  we  crook  our  finger  we  find  that  it  re- 
quires thought  to  direct  the  force. 

You  will  also  bear  in  mind  that  we  are  not  claiming 
that  either  the  thought,  force,  or  substance,  in  this 
its  atomic  or  infinite  state,  is  a  fully  crystallized 
thought  or  a  fully  developed  mechanical  force  capable 
of  acting  on  an  organized  body  of  matter,  but  only 


(  329  ) 

accompanies  the  atomic  substance ;  for  the  apple,  the 
rose,  the  earth  itself,  in  the  atomic  state  are  but  as  a 
point  in  space.  (See  Chapter  XL,  on  Max  Muller's 
philosophy  of  thought.) 


(  330  ) 


CHAPTER   XXXIX. 

LOWER  PHYSICS^  PSYCHO-PHYSICS^  AND  HIGHER  OR 
METAPHYSICS. 

There  is  childhood,  manhood,  and  ripe  old  age; 
spring,  summer,  and  winter;  past,  present,  and 
future,  and  many  other  like  comparisons;  and  while 
the  science  of  language  has  seemingly  made  three  dis- 
tinct divisions  of  these  conditions,  yet  it  is  not  a  fact. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  first  three.  Is  there  a  definite 
point  in  the  age  of  a  child  where  it  ceases  to  be  a  child 
and  becomes  a  man? 

And  so  it  is  with  time.  Can  you  illustrate,  to  the 
exact  fraction  of  a  second,  the  space  separating  the 
now  or  present  from  the  past  or  future? 

In  this  light,  you  must  view  the  physical,  psycho- 
physical, and  metaphysical ;  or,  if  you  will  allow  us, 
we  will  designate  it  the  gross,  or  lower,  physical 
matter,  the  fully  developed  physical  matter,  and  the 
comprehensive  limit  of  perfection  to  all  physical 
matter,  for  matter  it  unquestionably  is. 

We  will  again  ask  you :  Is  there  a  definite  point  in 
time  where  the  one  condition  leaves  off  and  another 
begins,  or  can  man  to-day,  with  his  present  knowl- 
edge, define  where  substance,  after  it  is  organized  into 
form  and  recognized  as  physical  matter,  ceases  to  be 
matter? 


(  331  ) 

And  if  you  succeed  in  solving  this  rid( 
tell  us  how  or  through  what  channel  force  demon- 
strates its  existence  to  man :  such  as  the  transference 
of  thought,  clairvoyance,  hypnotism,  etc. 

As  there  is  evidently  motion  (i.  e.  vibration),  if  not 
matter,  what  is  it  that  receives  the  force?  In  other 
words,  what  is  it  that  vibrates? 

We  can  understand  that  the  matter  of  electricity 
moves  on  a  material  wire  and  are  in  harmony  with 
each  other. 

It  will  not  do  for  the  philosophers  of  to-day  to  deny 
or  pooh-pooh  the  truth  of  these  phenomena,  for  they 
are  no  longer  confined  to  some  one  obscure  village,  but 
are  noiv  well-estahlished  facts,  and  are  being  pro- 
duced and  acknowledged  as  such  by  the  most  eminent 
minds  of  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world. 

If  Mr.  Darwin's  investigation  of  the  origin  of 
species  filled  a  gap  left  open  by  your  philosophers, 
then  why  not  carry  your  investigations  on  these  lines 
still  further,  and  endeavor  to  as  rationally  solve  the 
question  as  to  the  origin  and  modus  operandi  of  all 
forms? 

Why  halt  at  species?  Do  you  know  of  any  definite 
gulf  that  separates  the  formation  of  a  crystal  from 
the  formation  of  a  mastodon?  Of  course,  you  will 
understand  that  we  are  endeavoring  to  carry  your 
reasoning  into  the  metaphysical  or  limit  of  compre- 
hension. 

Why  has  this  chimerical  idea  of  a  gulf  been  per- 
mitted to  exist  in  the  minds  of  the  people?  Was  it  not 
in  the  first  place  for  the  want  of  positive  knowledge  of 
a  continuation  of  thought,  force  or  the  I  AM,  after 


(  832  ) 

the  disintegration  or  death,  (so  called)  of  the  form  or 
body  of  matter  other  than  by  the  way  of  the  proto- 
plasm? 

Your  scientists  heretofore  have  generally — and,  we 
may  say,  almost  to  a  man — fallen  into  the  same  error 
in  assuming  as  a  postulate  that  all  substance  held  no 
other  relation  to  the  infinite  than  as  recognized  by 
them  in  the  condition  which  we  have  designated  as  the 
lower  physical  condition.  We  are  now  speaking  of 
the  time  in  which  that  most  excellent  philosopher, 
Immanuel  Kant,  dwelt  among  you  of  the  earth,  and 
whose  works,  though  written  over  one  hundred  years 
ago,  are  still  considered  as  the  best  and  highest 
authority,  at  least  so  far  as  the  lower  physical  forma- 
tion is  concerned.  What  a  grand  work  that  old  man 
would  have  produced  had  he  lived  to  investigate  the 
various  spirit  phenomena  of  to-day ! 

But  the  sun  do  move!  We  are  free  to  admit  that, 
in  the  absence  of  those  phenomena  in  his  day,  science 
concluded  that  with  the  end  of  the  earth-life  of  all 
matter,  form,  or  body  that  that  was  the  last  of  its 
existence  as  matter,  and  that  it  then  was  returned  to 
the  mills  of  the  gods,  earth,  in  the  atomic  state  as  sub- 
stance, to  again  repeat  upon  itself. 

One  of  their  arguments  advanced  to  sustain  this 
hypothesis  was  the  fact  that  Mr.  Huxley's  human 
protoplasm  passed  into  the  fish,  the  fish  passed  into 
the  wild  duck  and  its  egg,  and  the  duck  or  egg  was 
returned  back  again  into  the  human  form. 

And  another  that  Mr.  Darwin  might  offer  you  to 
support  his  philosophy  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
is:   first,  that  the  spider  feeds  upon  the  slimes  of  a 


(  333  ) 

dungeon,  the  toad  upon  the  spider,  the  snake  feeds 
upon  the  toad,  the  hog-  feeds  upon  the  snake,  and  man 
feeds  upon  the  hog.  Hence  we  presume  that  this  fact 
leads  Mr.  Huxley  into  the  belief  that  he  had  dis- 
covered the  dead  matter  of  life — i.  e.  protoplasm. 

We  cannot  refrain  from  calling  your  attention  at 
this  point  to  the  corroborative  evidence  here  given  to 
substantiate  the  truth  that  all  primeval  matter  is 
slowly  moving  upward,  but  is  in  this  case  compelled  to 
pass  through  the  lower  mills  of  the  gods;  i.  e.  the 
spider,  which  progressed  or  prepares  it  for  the  next 
mill,  the  frog,  and  so  on,  leaving  a  little  but  taking 
more. 

Here  you  will  perceive  that  that  which  would  have 
been  highly  deleterious  to  the  human  stomach  in  its 
first  stage  has  become,  by  the  law  of  evolution,  whole- 
some and  nutritious  food  for  man.  Or,  if  it  so  please 
the  Gospel  sharp,  he  may  here  find  that  man  not  only 
evolved  from  the  monkey  but  also  from  the  slimes  of  a 
dungeon. 

If  they  could  give  an  account  of  all  the  substance, 
or  even  all  of  the  matter,  forming  the  protoplasm, 
showing  to  an  exactness  that  all  did  actually  pass 
from  the  defunct  body  of  the  man  into  the  fish,  and 
from  thence  into  the  duck  or  e!g^,  and  then  back  into 
the  human  form,  then  they  might  be  justified  in  as- 
suming such  a  postulate.  But  have  they  done  so? 
That  is  the  first  and  most  important  question  for  you, 
my  friend,  to  decide. 

We  do  not  wish  to  stand  on  an  exact  technicality 
and  confine  our  demands  to  the  fish  or  duck  alone,  for 
some  of  the  matter  might  have  passed  into  oxygen, 


(  334  ) 

iron,  phosphorus,  etc. ;  but  science  does  not  carry  a 
stock  in  trade  of  might-have-heens.  This  law  deals 
only  in  known  truth.  Therefore,  we  insist  on  your 
ancient  and  modern  philosophers  accounting  for  all 
the  substance  that  was  in  the  human  body  after  it 
entered  the  water.  Thisy  and  only  this,  is  strict 
science. 

To  these  scientists  we  would  say:  Gentlemen,  you 
exact  your  pound  of  flesh  from  me,  and  that  is  correct 
law.  But  see  that  you  render  unto  me  an  exact 
equivalent  by  accounting  for  the  presence  of  spirit, 
materialized  voices,  moving  of  heavenly  bodies,  inde- 
pendent writing,  raps,  hypnotism,  healing,  material- 
ization, passing  one  solid  body — so-called — through 
another,  bringing  a  letter  or  purse  from  a  distant 
room,  say  half  a  mile  away,  into  a  locked  room  of 
another  house;  clairvoyance,  prophecy,  and  all  the 
various  phenomena  now  occurring  all  over  the  civil- 
ized and  uncivilized  world.  And  while  you  are  so 
engaged,  please  do  not  seek  to  avoid  the  facts  or  beg 
the  question  by  explaining  how  a  fake  or  counterfeit 
dollar  is  produced,  for  that  is  not  our  question,  but 
rather  how  the  genuine  dollar  is  produced. 

For  again  we  repeat  that  these  facts  hav-e  presented 
themselves  for  your  consideration,  and,  as  philoso- 
phers, you  will  excuse  us,  we  sincerely  hope,  when  we 
say  meet  them  you  must,  for  avoid  them  you  can  not, 
as  they  are  here  to  stay  and  increase  in  numbers. 


(  335  ) 


CHAPTER   XL. 

A  COMMENT  ON  MAX  MULLER^S  PHILOSOPHY  OF 
THOUGHT. 

We  cannot  refrain  from  making  a  few  remarks  in 
reply  to  F.  Max  Muller's  paradoxical  idea  that  there 
is  no  such  a  thing  as  reason  and  then  almost  immedi- 
ately (i.  e.  before  he  has  uttered  sixty  words),  de- 
liberately asserts  that  reason  is  something^  namely, 
language ;  that  it  is  the  work  of  man,  that  there  is  no 
reason  or  conception  without  language;  he  appears  to 
lay  some  stress  on  the  fact  that  we  cannot  tell  what 
reason  is  made  of,  hence  it  has  no  existence,  therefore 
as  we  do  not  knoAv  what  Life,  substance,  and  space  are 
made  of,  j)er  se,  they  have  no  existence;  he  appears 
anxious  for  some  philosopher  to  give  him  a  definition 
of  what  language  is  without  reason,  or  reason  without 
language. 

Why  not  ask  what  motion  is  without  force,  or  force 
without  motion;  matter  without  substance,  or  sub- 
stance without  matter?  But  we  will  ask  him:  Did 
the  atom  possess  a  language  or  words  before  it  con- 
ceived a  thought  to  form  an  organized  cell?  Does  the 
babe  need  a  language  when  it  displays  thought  to 
creep  to  the  fire? 

He  asks  us  what  reason  is  composed  of.  We  might 
retaliate  by  asking  him  what  ivords  are  composed  of. 
In  this  case,  we  think  he  will  be  obliged  to  admit  that 


(  336  ) 

they  are  composed  of  the  vibration  of  atoms;  and  as 
vibration  is  but  an  effect  of  substance  in  motion,  it 
has  no  real  existence  as  a  thing.  We  take  it  that  Max 
Muller  intended  to  illustrate  this  assertion  when  he 
quotes  Abelard's  remarks  that  language  is  generated 
by  the  intellect,  and  generates  intellect.  So  does  Hux- 
ley illustrate  his  protoplasm  by  the  live  lobster  eating 
the  dead  man  or  dead  protoplasm,  and  thereby  con- 
verting it  into  live  protoplasm,  when  the  live  man  eats 
the  dead  lobster  or  dead  protoplasm,  and  again  recon- 
verts it  into  Life;  hence  this  proves  from  whence 
came  the  live  cell. 

It  is  possible  that  we  do  not  understand  Max 
Muller  but  we  hope  he,  as  a  specialist  on  words,  at 
least  understands  himself  when  he  asserts  that  with- 
out language  man  could  never  have  come  to  his  senses 
(which  means,  when  stripped  of  its  ingenuity,  that  we 
could  neither  see,  smell,  taste,  touch,  or  hear).  And 
to  him.  Max  Muller,  it  always  seemed  incredible  that 
thought  should  have  l>een  considered  as  possible  with- 
out language,  or  that  animals  think  if  we  define  think- 
ing by  speaking ;  he  also  asserts  that  animals  have  no 
language — hence  no  senses. 

Let  a  strange  dog  enter  a  barnyard  where  chickens 
are  feeding,  and  listen  to  that  peculiar  cluck-ux-cluck- 
cluck  of  the  cock,  uttered  as  a  tvord  of  umrning  to  the 
hens  of  danger;  a  poultryman  may  be  out  of  their 
sight  and  a  hundred  yards  away,  and  he,  the  human 
as  well  as  the  brute,  instantly  knows  and  understands 
the  word  or  sound  of  danger.  T>et  the  cock  find  a  tooth- 
some morsel,  and  listen  to  his  call.  How  readily  the 
hen  understands  him !    Observe  fowls  in  any  part  of 


(337') 

the  world.  This  language  of  theirs,  wherein  thej  give 
expression  to  thoughts  of  joy  and  fright,  produced 
from  an  application  of  their  sense  of  sight,  is  always  of 
the  same  number  of  vibratory  waves  (of  substance), 
and  is  the  human  voice, ^??ore  or  less,  when  used  to  con- 
vey the  same  thoughts  to  others  orally — i.  e.  merely  a 
mechanical  or  physical  force  acting  on  matter  to  im- 
part motion  or  vibratory  waves  of  more  or  less  in- 
tensity. Man's  vocal  organs  being  more  highly  de- 
veloped than  the  cock's,  can  produce  a  greater  variety 
of  sound. 

We  must  admit  that  Max  Muller,  though  somewhat 
ingenious  in  the  use  of  words  as  a  means  of  expressing 
his  thoughts  to  others,  has  certainly  failed  to  be  as 
readily  understood  as  the  cock,  and,  after  a  perusal 
of  some  of  his  works,  we  find  ourselves  somewhat  dis- 
appointed in  our  expectations,  for  we  certainly  ex- 
pected that  he,  as  a  specialist  on  the  origin  of  words, 
would  at  least  be  sure  to  so  form  his  own  words  into 
language  that  ordinary  mortals  could  not  possibly 
fail  to  understand  him  at  least  as  comprehensively 
and  as  quickly  as  a  common  barnyard  fowl  can  under- 
stand its  mate.  To  quote  one  of  his  expressions,  he 
says  that  embryonic  thought  that  never  came  to  birth 
is  not  thought  at  all,  but  only  the  material  out  of 
which  thought  may  spring  (which  he  borrows  from 
Descartes).  As  he  seems  to  lay  great  stress  on  the 
fact  that  we  cannot  tell  of  what  material  reason  is 
made,  would  it  not  be  highly  proper  for  this  expert 
of  language  and  words,  if  he  does  not  wish  to  be  con- 
sidered paradoxical,  to  explain  to  a  common  mind 
what  constitutes  the  material  of  an  embryo  thought? 


(  838  ) 

The  object  of  his  three  lectures  on  the  science  of 
thought  as  we  understand  him,  is  to  demonstrate  the 
physical  basis  of  thought;  then  should  he  not  begin 
at  the  beginning,  the  embryo  itself,  and  explain  the 
difference  between  infant  dead  thought  and  how  it  is 
made  alive;  how  are  we  to  recognize  the  promise ^  of 
a  thought,  and,  if  this  promise  should  fail  to  material- 
ize, what  becomes  of  it?  Is  this  promise,  then,  trans- 
mogrified into  some  other  thing  or  doo,3  it  meet  with 
total  annihilation? 

It  certainly  would  seem  to  us  that  if  we  wished  to 
arrive  at  the  first  cause  or  beginning  of  an  existing 
thing,  that  we  should  seek  the  cause  of  the  embryo 
itself  and  satisfy  ourselves  whether,  if  this  embryo 
should  fail  to  develop  into  a  thought,  it  were  possible 
that  it  might  not  slide  off  at  a  tangent  and  become 
something  else — one  of  Davidson's  mscrutahle  things, 
for  instance? 

If  there  could  be  no  thought  without  language,  then 
we  are  obliged  to  assume  that  language  was  a  thing 
that  existed  previous  to  thought,  in  order  to  be  in  a 
position  to  produce  this  embryo  or  promise  of  a 
thought,  while  we  shall  contend  that  just  the  opposite 
is  the  fact  and  shall  endeavor  to  maintain  our  position 
in  this  manner: — 

As  one  (1)  is  not  mathematics  itself,  but  the  be- 
ginning of  mathematics,  and  as  the  end  of  a  yard  stick 
is  not  measure  or  extension  itself,  but  the  beginning 
of  extension,  just  so  is  an  atom  of  any  kind  not  the 
matter  or  form,  but  the  beginning  of  them  and,  as  an 
atom  can  only  come  within  human  comprehension  as 
a  point  in  space;   and  as  a  point  is  without  length, 


(  339  ) 

breadth,  or  thickness,  hence  it  is  the  one  (1)  or  last 
division  of  things  comprehensible  to  man  that  occu- 
pies space  as  an  entity  to  which  you  may  practically 
apply  your  senses.  Therefore,  it  will  naturally  follow 
that  an  atom  of  substance  would  require  but  an  atom 
of  force  to  impart  to  it  its  first  fraction  of  modiion; 
this  atom  of  force,  while  not  physical  or  mechanical 
force  itself,  is  the  beginning  of  force  or  the  promise  of 
a  force — i.  e.  the  embryo. 

But  even  this  atomic  force  we  find  requires  an  atom 
of  thought  to  intelligently  direct  it,  and  while  it  is 
not  a  fully  crystallized  thought  itself,  it  is  the  he- 
ginning  of  thought.  (See  Descartes  letter  to 
Princess  Elizabeth  on  the  extension  of  this  matter  of 
thought,  etc.,  to  whom,  let  us  hope.  Max  Muller  forgot 
to  give  the  proper  credit  for  the  idea.  We  think  that 
had  Descartes  made  a  distinction  between  ^natter  and 
atomic  substance^  he  could  have  avoided  his  blunder 
in  giving  extension  to  embryonic  thought. )  Here  you 
find  the  unquestionable  evidence  of  the  presence  of 
thought  coincidental  with  force  and  substance  as  the 
actual  beginning  of  comprehension. 

Now  allow  us  to  ask :  How  would  you  proceed  to 
atomize  language? 

As  language  is  not  an  entity,  the  question  of  exten- 
sion has  nothing  to  do  with  it,  but  when  first  recog- 
nized it  is  as  vibratory  waves  of  matter  in  motion  act- 
ing on  the  auditory  nerve,  and  but  an  effect  caused  by 
the  combined  action  of  thought^  force^  and  substance 
in  motion. 

Either  an  entity  or  the  five  senses  can  exist  as  a  fact 
or  truth  without  the  use  of  words,  language,  or  human 


(  340  ) 

reason,  and  as  it  is  now  an  acknowledged  fact  that 
thought  is  an  entity  and  subject  to  motion^  you  are 
compelled  in  tracing  its  origin  to  go  to  the  atom  or 
one  of  mathematics  and  not  stop  at  F.  Max  Muller-s 
half-way  house  by  starting  your  investigation  at  the 
matter  out  of  which  thought  may  spring,  for  this 
would  leave  you  still  another  question  to  solve  lying 
previous  to  the  existence  of  matter,  namely:  From 
whence  came  matter  if  not  from  the  atom  of  sub- 
stance? 

As  regards  the  promise  of  a  thought ,  or  whether 
such  a  thing  has  a  tangible  existence  or  not:  Well, 
to  be  as  charitable  as  exact  science  will  allow,  we  must 
confess  that  all  of  our  researches  have  been  confined 
to  those  truths  lying  Avithin  the  limit  of  physics, 
psycho-physics,  and  metaphysics;  therefore,  we  do 
not  feel  justified  in  risking  an  opinion,  pro  or  con,  as 
to  what  may  spring  from  the  beyond,  or  the  what-or- 
how  this  promise  may  present  itself  to  the  human  sen- 
ses for  a  recognition  of  its  existence. 

We  are  willing  to  concede  that  language  stands  as 
a  representative  of  thought  in  a  limited  degree,  yet 
it  is  not  a  perfect  representative ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  thought,  if  it,  like  force  and  substance,  be 
infinite,  is  in  the  superlative  degree;  for  though 
force  and  substance  may  differ  in  quantity,  yet  they 
could  not  differ  in  quality  if  atomized;  and  as  we 
think  we  have  conclusively  shown  that  force  has  an 
existence  as  an  entity  apart  from  substance,  so  do  we 
assert  that  thought  is  an  entity  other  than  substance, 
and  beyond  the  fact  that  they  prove  their  existence 
to  man  by  their  apparent  effect  on  matter  as  separate 
entities  of  nature,  man  has  no  further  knowledge. 


mm 


(  341  ) 

However,  we  feel  inclined  to  give  you  one  other 
illustration  as  to  how  the  matter  of  form  was  pro- 
duced from  the  atom  of  substance  where  one  atom 
shall  represent  the  beginning ;  two,  the  dawn,  spark, 
or  Max  MuUer's  promise  of  a  form  (thought)  ;  three, 
the  embryo ;  and  four,  a  full-horn  thought  or  body. 

In  order  tliat  you  may  clearly  comprehend  us,  we 
will  suggest  that  you  take  four  marbles  in  your  hand. 
Now,  consider  that  each  of  these  marbles  represents 
one  single  atom  of  substance,  thought,  or  force  (as 

#the  process  of  evolving  is  the  same) .    Now,  lay 
down  one  atom  (marble)  on  the  table  (Fig.  1)  ; 
^^8. 1.   this  of  itself,  being  a  point  in  space,  is  without 
length,  breadth,  or  thickness,  the  beginning 
or  promise  of  extension.     Next  place  the 
second  atom    (Fig.  2)    beside  it,  and  just      ^'^'^' 

touching  it ;  here  you  find  length  or  exten- 

Jm  sion,  but  neither  breadth  nor  thickness. 
^^  This  would  represent  the  dawn,  spark,  or 
promise  of  a  form,  i.  e.  the  matter  of  exten- 
sion, or  birth  of  matter.  You  will  now 
place  beside  these  two,  and  just  touch- 
ing them  both,  the  third  atom,  here  w^e 
find  length  and  breadth,  but  no  thickness 
(Fig.  3).  This  will  represent  the  birth 
of  form  (a  triangle),  but  not  a  body  ^^''^' 
itself,  as  it  yet  lacks  thickness.  Finally,  you 
place  the  fourth  atom  (or  marble)  on  the  top  of 
these  three,  when  you  perceive  for  the  first  time  a  full 
formed  body  (Fig.  4)  of  either  force,  thought,  or  a 
molecule  of  matter  subject  to  the  three  dimensions  of 
space,  and  from  thence  on  a  full-fledged  entity,  a  deni- 
zen of  space.    At  this  stage  of  the  uniting  of  the  first 


A 


(  342  ) 

four  units  or  atoms  is  absolutely  the  very  first  appear- 
ance or  birth  of  an  organized  body,  and  where  it  ceases 
to  be  atomized  substance  And  is  the  birth  of  a  body  of 
matter,  this  we  may  call  the  first  step  or  beginning 
of  the  evolution  of  matter.  After  this  follows  involu- 
tion, to  again  evolve. 

When  these  minute  bodies  acting  in  harmony  with 
other  bodies  produce  or  give  birth  to  mechanical 
force,  such  as  gravity,  magnetic  attraction,  friction, 
heat,  light,  etc., — and  in  this  condition  is  what  is 
termed  the  lowest  or  first  molecule  of  matter, — is  not 
this  an  organized  body? 

And,  though  embraced  by  the  three  dimensions  of 
space,  many  cycles  of  time  shall  yet  roll  by  before  man 
shall  be  able  to  perceive  it  by  his  sense  of  sight,  and 
then  only  by  artificial  means  far  superior  to  your 
microscope. 

Also,  while  matter  is  in  this  its  first  condition  of 
form  it  is  the  physical  basis  of  so-called  organized 
life,  as  Mr.  Huxley's  cell  could  not  appear  on  the 
stage  of  existence  without  the  aid  of  these  bodies ;  for 
you  could  not  place  these  four  marbles  (atoms)  in 
such  a  position  as  would  form  a  cell ;  in  other  words, 
as  one  marble  would  represent  one  atom  of  substance, 
just  so  would  the  uniting  of  the  four  marbles  repre- 
sent the  single  molecule  of  matter  or  embryonic 
thought. 

It  is  a  common  thing  for  physical  scientists  to  put 
forward  the  following  as  a  postulate :  "  Before  a 
thing  can  evolve  it  must  first  be  involved."  This,  you 
will  perceive,  is  an  absurd  hypothesis  when  viewed 
from  its  absolute  point  of  beginning, — that  is,  as  a 
single  atom  of  anything. 


(  343  > 

"  It  seemed  to  me  that  I  did  but  dream  that  I  was 
dreaming  of  a  dream/' — i.  e.,  the  spark  of  life  and 
matter.  The  very  first  conception  in  the  human  mind 
of  a  thing  is  its  last  division  or  single  state  of  one 
(1)  or  oneness;  this  would  precede  involution;  for 
a  thing  to  involve,  it  must  enter  into  some  other  thing 
that  already  existed  as  an  entity. 

To  illustrate  this  Ave  will  conceive  of  a  single  atom 
standing  alone  in  space.  In  this  condition  it  is  but  a 
point,  having  neither  length,  breadth,  nor  thickness, 
it  attracts  unto  it,  not  into  (for  it  could  not  enter  a 
thing  that  had  no  inside)  another  atom.  This  is  the 
very  first  move  on  the  chessboard  of  physics^  at  least 
so  far  as  human  comprehension  can  go,  and  at  this 
point  it  begins  to  evolve,  advance,  change,  or  pro- 
gress; for  we  find  that  by  being  joined  by  another 
atom,  it  has  doubled  its  quantity,  its  intelligence,  and 
its  importance  as  a  factor  in  the  evolving  of  all  other 
things  that  man  has  any  knowledge  of.  Herefrom 
we  deduce  that  involution  is  the  natural  sequence  of 
evolution;  for  involution  could  only  apply  its  po- 
tency to  matter  as  it  changed  from  one  form  to 
another ;  and  as  form  did  not  make  its  appearance  in 
space  so  as  to  be  recognized  as  a  form  until  the  join- 
ing of  the  third  atom,  then  it  naturally  follows  that 
involution  is  the  second  move  on  the  chessboard  of 
things  that  be, — i.  e.  matter  of  form  and  body  or 
breadth  and  thickness.  To  extend  or  to  add  to  a  line 
is  not  to  involve,  but  to  evolve;  by  this  view  of  the 
case  you  will  perceive  that  Darwin,  the  father  of 
evolution,  is  still  on  deck. 

And  now  as  to  our  explanation  in  regard  to  what 


(  344  ) 

F.  Max  Muller  probably  had  reference  to  in  his 
promise  of  a  thoiught ;  this  we  deem  an  act  of  justice 
to  Descartes  as  well  as  to  F.  Max  Muller. 

The  object  of  promulgating  a  philosophy  is  to  place 
before  the  lay  mind,  or  common  mass  of  people,  such 
plain  explanation  of  the  truth  as  will  not  only  appeal 
to,  but  satisfy,  the  reasonable  common  sense  of  an 
average  mentality.  If  it  fails  to  do  this,  it  subjects  its 
advocate  to  a  fair,  just,  and  impartial  criticism  from 
others,  as  regard  to  the  truth  or  probability  of  such 
philosophy. 

It  would  therefore  appear  to  us  that  we  are  com- 
pelled to  begin  all  of  our  investigations  at  Descartes' 
mathematical  one  (1),  or  unit,  which  is  conceived 
to  be  a  point, — i.  e.  a  single  atom.  Then  we  find  first 
an  atom  of  thought;  this  thought  acts  upon  or  di- 
rects an  atom  of  force ;  this  force  acts  upon  an  atom 
of  substance,  to  produce  motion.  Here  we  think  that 
Descartes  erred  in  assuming  that  an  atom  of  sub- 
stance was  matter  itself  already  made  to  hand  and 
extended,  because  he  assumes  that  thought  is  mattery 
but  not  subject  to  extension. 

Whilo  we  declare  that,  though  thought  does  actual- 
ly ex".-^  as  an  entity  in  space,  and  is  a  subject  of  ex- 
tension by  the  addition  of  other  atoms  of  thought,  yet 
it,  like  force,  exists  as  some  thing  other  than  sub- 
stance ^  and  in  its  first  recognized  state  of  one  thincj, 
it  is  ivithout  extension,  be  that  one  thing  thought, 
force,  or  substance. 

And  at  this  point  of  the  physical  beginning  of 
things,  is  for  a  fact  not  only  the  promise  of  a  thought, 
as  per  F.  Max  Muller,  or  the  so-called  matter  out  of 


(  345  ) 

which  thought  may  spring,  according  toi  Descartes, 
but  the  promise  of  all  else  that  is  subject  to  human 
cognition. 

We  will  illustrate  it  in  this  way :  By  assuming  the 
atom  to  be  a  single  brick  in  a  loose  mass  of  bricks, 
this  brick  is  the  promise  of  a  building  onlyy  or  that 
single  unit  out  of  which  a  building  may  spring,  but 
you  could  not  say  that  it  was  a  building  in  embryo, 
from  the  fact  that  as  an  embryo  it  must  be  extended, 
which  would  require  two  bricks  at  least  to  pre-estab- 
lish an  organism  of  matter — i.  e.  a  building — where 
the  first  two  units  have  come  together  for  a  precon- 
ceived purpose.  This  would  be  the  hirtli^  and  not  the 
promise,  of  a  thing,  such  as  thought^  force,  and 
matter ;  for  at  this  stage  it  ceases  to  be  atomic  sub- 
stance and  becomes  the  matter  of  extension. 

Again  were  there  nothing  there  whatever,  there 
could  be  no  conception  of  a  promise ;  for  were  it  only 
in  the  nature  of  a  feather,  we  might  have  the  proniisG 
out  of  which  a  goose  may  spring,  etc.,  by  which  we 
mean  there  must  he  some  one  tiling  presen-  ^i'  the 
nature  of  the  form  promised  or  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  feather  could  fly  off  at  a  tangent  by  force, 
blindly  acting  in  the  dark,  and  become  a  meeting- 
house, or  one  of  those  inscrutable  things  that  present 
not  even  a  promise. 

By  this  explanation  (if  it  be  the  most  plausible 
one),  you  will  be  enabled  to  understand  why  we  credit 
Max  Muller  with  having  great  ingenuity  in  the  use 
of  words ;  for  while  he  traced  his  embryonic  thought 
to  the  promise  of  a  thought,  he  was  ingenious  enough 
not   to   trace   or   explain   from    whence   came   this 


(  346  ) 

promise^  as  he  is  compelled  to  acknowledge  that  some 
things  must  precede  a  promise  of  a  thing,  else  how 
are  we  to  expect  or  recognize  that  this  promise  exists 
at  all? 

Is  sound  a  thing,  an  entity?  Is  language  oi*  words 
anything  else  than  sound? 

Is  sound  anything  else  than  an  effect  of  some  thing 
in  motion  (substance)  ? 

Now,  how  are  we  to  recognize  even  the  promise  of 
a  word  or  sound  without  thought?  For  if  language 
produced  thought^  it  must  precede  or  exist  before  the 
tvork  it  produces y  and  naturally  in  the  atomic  state 
of  the  one  unit  before  it  is  extension. 

Certainly  some  one  thing  must  previously  exist  to 
produce  this  effect  called  vibration;  and  again  we 
ask.  What  is  the  recognized  nature  of  the  preceding 
thing  that  holds  out  this  promise? 

If  the  answer  be  that  language  is  not  a  thing,  then 
allow  us  to  inquire  by  what  process  nothing  can  pro- 
duce something?  For  thought  undoubtedly  is  some- 
thing, from  the  fact  of  its  being  subject  to  transporta- 
tion— that  is,  thought-transference — some  thing  upon 
which  force  must  act  before  we  can  recognize  motion. 

In  short,  after  a  careful  study  of  Max  Muller's  pam- 
phlet entitled  "  Science  of  Thought," — i.  e.  his  lec- 
tures given  at  the  Royal  Institution  of  London  in 
1887, — the  thought  intrudes  upon  us  that  had  he 
changed  the  title  to  the  "  Science  of  Meaning,"  he 
could  have  avoided  in  a  measure  the  creepy  chills 
traversing  his  spinal  column  when  others  speak  in 
his  presence  of  language  as  mere  words.  Surely  no 
one  will  dispute  the  fact  that  meaning  is  the  founda- 
tion as  well  as  the  capstone  of  all  that  is. 


(847  ) 

Hence  the  question  is,  in  our  endeavor  to  discover 
a  proper  place  for  all  capstones,  Which  of  the  various 
roads  to  Eome  shall  we  select?  Shall  we  call  to  our 
assistance  thought,  that  we  may  conceive  a  word  to 
express  a  meaning,  or  shall  we  conceive  a  word  that 
we  may  think  a  meaning f 

And  if  it  be  found  upon  further  inquiry  that  neither 
road  is  correct,  pray  do  not  refer  us  to  such  profound 
logics,  as  that  we  reason  by  reasonilig,  see  by  seeing, 
hear  by  hearing.  Hence  we  conceive  by  conceiving 
thought-words  as  word-thoughts,  in  the  same  manner 
that  Huxley  accounts  for  the  protoplasm  of  the 
lobster.  Furthermore,  to  the  student  we  will  say  that 
we  are  not  willing  to  concede  that  it  is  at  all  probable 
that  either  Mr.  Galton,  the  Duke  of  Argyle,  or  our- 
selves have  misunderstood  the  professor's  meaning, 
for  we  find  he  has  as  it  were,  placed  before  us  the  two 
horns  of  a  dilemma  only  one  of  which  must  be  chosen 
d.  w.  t. 

Either  that  concept  and  a  think  are  synonymous 
terms  preceding  words  by  which  we  coin  a  word  (or 
sign)  to  express  said  concept,  or  think;  or  concept 
and  words  are  synonymous  terms  preceding  a  think 
out  of  which  a  thought  is  first  produced. 

For  this  think-words,  or  word-thinks,  is  merely 
bogging  the  question ;  it  is  neither  philosophical  nor 
reasonable  common  sense,  and  the  most  palpable  error 
he  makes  is  in  asserting  that  man  could  not  have  come 
to  his  senses  lolthout  language. 

It  would  have  been  more  of  the  philosopher  had  he 
said  that  man  could  never  have  come  to  his  F.  Max 
Muller's  sense  that  language  precedes  Thought. 


(  348  ) 

Not  that  we  would  intimate  that  Max  Muller  was 
in  the  slightest  degree  tinctured  with  the  hereditary 
teachings  of  Kant,  that  those  who  do  not  conceive  as 
I  conceive  by  my  process  of  rational  common  sense 
*^  are  those  who  from  the  rank  and  file  of  shallow 
fools  J  who  measure  their  strength  with  the  profound 
thinker." 

How  unfortunate  it  may  be  for  the  rank  and  file  of 
mortals  that  as  yet  are  unable  to  determine  who  these 
profound  thinkers  are,  after  giving  reasonable  atten- 
tion to  so  rational  a  thinker  as  our  friend  Max  Muller, 
or  is  it  probable  that  Kant's  age  of  criticism  is  to  be 
considered  as  a  tiling  of  the  past? 

How  strange  it  is  that  such  profound  thinkers  as 
Kant,  Oswold,  Beattie,  and  others  should  deem  it 
necessary  to  imply  that  those  who  conceive  a  thought 
to  express  a  conviction  as  to  the  reliability  of  the 
evidence  of  their  own  senses  are  not  as  well  qualified 
to  arrive  at  a  reasonable  solution  of  truth  as  Kant, 
Keid,  Stewart,  and  others,  unless  they  view  it  through 
the  same  glasses  as  themselves.  It  is  certainly  not  in 
good  taste  to  imply,  that  those  who  differ  with  them 
were  merely  bidding  for  the  applause  of  the  rabble, 
for  after  all  it  would  seem  to  us  that  the  difference 
(if  any)  lay  between  the  tweedle-dee  and  the  tweedle- 
dum of  Hume's  good  sense  and  Kant's  rational 
thought. 

To  appeal  directly  to  Kant's  own  words,  he  asserts 
"  that  common  sense  is  a  precious  gift  of  God,  but  we 
must  prove  it  by  its  acts,  by  deliberate  and  rational 
thought  and  speech,  and  not  appeal  to  it  as  an  oracle, 
whenever  reason  fails  us." 


(349  ) 

Now,  allow  us  to  ask  of  Mr.  Kant  has  he  and  com- 
pany any  rational  knoivledge  of  the  truth  of  his  asser- 
tion that  a  God  presented  himself  and  friends  with 
this  precious  thing  he  calls  common  sense  and  with- 
held it  from  the  average  mentality;  and  in  giving  it 
did  he  also  convey  to  them  some  mystic  key  which 
enables  them  to  arrive  at  all  absolute  truth  unalloyed 
by  past  hereditary  teachings  f 

Is  it  not  the  power  that  is  inherent  in  all  mortals 
to  exercise  the  five  senses  that  they  may  conceive  a 
thought  the  primary  condition  necessary  for  the  de- 
velopment of  rational  reason? 

And  is  a  reference  or  appeal  to  common  sense  any- 
thing other  than  rational  reason? 

This  compels  us  to  inquire  as  to 

WHAT   IS   RATIONAL    REASON? 

When  all  of  the  five  natural  senses,  or  so  nuasny  of 
them  as  are  applicable  to  the  subject-matter  under 
consideration,  have  had  reasonable  time  to  report  to 
the  entire  brain  their  own  cognition  of  the  phenomena 
as  presented  to  them  for  their  reception,  thus  giving 
each  natural  sense  a  fair  and  reasonable  time  to  be 
heard  by  the  entire  brain.  And  you  then  give  the 
entire  brain  a  reasonable  time  to  receive  the  five,  or 
less,  reports. 

This  of  itself  is  the  act  of  producin,g  a  crystallized 
human  thought.  This,  we  infer,  is  what  Kant  and 
others  meant  when  they  tried  to  draw  a  distinction 
between  common  sense  and  rational  reason. 

And  now  to  the  point :  Does  reason  or  common 
sense  offer  any  evidence  of  the  existence  of  either  an 


(  350  ) 

oracle  or  a  giving  Godf  When  he  (Kant)  is  in  want 
of  something  that  he  does  not  possess,  does  he  appeal 
to  this  giving  God  or  oracle  and  deny  me  the  right  to 
the  same  appeal  to  my  oracle? 

While  we  entertain  the  highest  regard  for  the 
philosopliy  of  Imnmnuel  Kant,  and  believe  that  he 
meant  to  advance  the  truth  only  of  the  things  that 
are,  yet  Kant  was  mortal  and  subject  to  the  shadows 
and  tinctures  of  those  who  passed  he  fore,  and  it  re- 
quires but  little  effort  on  the  part  of  the  student  to 
detect  the  finger-marks  of  scholasticism,  still  having 
its  baleful  hereditary  influence  on  one  who  ivished  to 
he  free. 

And  how  could  it  be  otherwise?  Let  the  student 
begin  his  investigations  with  Thales,  some  six  hun- 
dred years  before  Christ,  and  follow  those  who  fol- 
lowed Thales  until  you  reach  the  time  of  Kant.  Each, 
you  will  perceive,  is  tinctured  with  the  philosophy  of 
his  predecessor,  but  is  slowly  advancing  out  of  dark- 
ness— i.  e.  gaining  a  little.  By  what,  if  not  the 
reasonahlc  application  of  his  common  sense? 

And  Avhen  Kant  produced  in  print  his  particular 
philosophy,  to  what  did  he  appeal  when  soliciting  our 
judgment,  if  not  to  our  common  sense? 

Or  were  it  necessary  for  you  and  I,  my  friend,  in 
case  we  did  not  conceive  as  he  conceived  to  have  re- 
course to  an  oracle  or  that  giving  God? 

By  way  of  a  parenthesis  we  would  ask  is  not  Kant 
appealing  to  this  same  cheap  notoriety  when  he  ap- 
peals to  his  giving  God?  Has  he  proved  the  existence 
of  such  a  God  by  his  particular  system  of  rational 
reason?  Those  who  live  in  glass  houses  should  not 
throw  stones. 


(  351  ) 

From  these  remarks  we  wish  it  to  be  clearly  and 
distinctly  understood  that  we  fully  recognize  the  dif- 
ference between  a  hasty  conclusion  regarding  the 
truth  of  all  phenomena  and  that  slow,  cautious,  and 
patient  process  that  all  rational  pioneer  thinkers 
should  (if  freed  from  hereditary  influence)  exercise 
in  arriving  at  a  philosophical  conclusion  regarding 
the  actual  facts,  either  in  a  scientific  or  rational  com- 
mon-sense view.  And,  if  this  be  the  fact,  what  is  the 
first  precept  to  be  established?  Is  it  not  absolute 
freedom  from  all  hereditary  or  preconceived  ideas? 
Which  for  a  fact  is  an  impossibility,  for  do  you  not 
depend  (we  may  say)  almost  entirely  upon  your  past 
hereditary  experience  in  arriving  at  what  you  think 
is  the  exact  truth  of  any  solution — i.  e.  the  evidence 
(such  as  it  is)  of  your  five  natural  senses? 

Next  comes  the  question,  Does  not  the  teaching 
that  you  received  from  your  parents  and  your  public 
or  Sunday-school  teachers,  to  a  certain  extent,  still 
have  an  influence  on  your  mind,  conscience,  or  will? 

Then  if  this  be  a  philosophical  fact,  allow  us  to  ask 
Messrs.  Kant,  Beattie,  Stewart,  Oswold,  Reid,  and 
other*  of  like  opinion,  in  what  miraculous  manner 
they  were  enabled  to  throw  off  this  taint  of  heresi/ 
sufficiently  to  authorize  them  to  say  what  the  differ- 
ence is  between,  we  reason  by  reasoning,  and  acquire 
common  sense  from  experience;  in  other  words, 
gentlemen,  pray  impart  to  us  the  secret  of  how  you 
became  freed  from  this  hereditary  disease,  in  order 
that  we,  the  raMle,  may  also  become  free.  If  so  be, 
you  labored  for  the  benefit  of  the  world. 

For  we  assume  that  you  were  perfectly  aware,  that 


(  352   ) 

there  would  accrue  to  you  no  financial  profit  from  the 
mere  sale  of  your  books.  In  fact  we  are  not  aware  of 
a  single  work  on  philosophy  that  ever  returned  to  its 
author  the  cost  of  its  issue.  This  being  the  case  we 
are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  sole  object  was 
to  benefit  the  people  of  earth  without  regard  to  race, 
creed  or  those  holding  scholarships  in  particular  uni- 
versities. 

Before  Huxley  or  Max  Muller  are  entitled  to  a 
serious  hearing  as  to  their  explanation  of  the  physical 
basis  of  either  life  or  thought.  It  would  appear  to  us 
as  incumbent  upon  them  to  first  establish  as  a  fact 
that  such  a  thing  as  physics,  of  itself,  had  an  actual 
existence  and  by  what  particular  earmarks  they  or  the 
lay  world  are  enabled  to  recognize  it  as  a  something. 

Having  continued  this  article  to  greater  length 
than  we  first  intended,  the  student  will  perceive  that 
it  resolves  itself  into  the  following  questions;  and 
we  are  inclined  to  think  that  a  direct  answer  would 
be  of  inestimable  value  to  this  same  rahhle  who  now 
find  themselves  within  the  embrace  of  the  dark  folds 
of  this  metaphorical  cuttlefish,  such  as — 

First — Did  physics  exist  before  matter? 

Second — Is  there  any  known  way  to  recognize 
matter  before  it  is  extended? 

Third — Did  it  require  motion  before  it  could  be- 
come extension? 

Fourth — Was  it  extended  for  a  purpose? 

Fifth — Could  there  be  purpose  without  thought? 

Sixth — Did  it  move  or  become  extended  before  it 
thought,  or  did  it  think  first  and  move  afterwards? 

If  their  answers  be,  that  all  change  having  a  defi- 


(  353  ) 

uite  object  in  view  for  a  specific  purpose  is  of  itself 
the  evidence  of  the  presence  of  thought  (and  we  can- 
not see  how  the  answer  could  he  otherwise),  then  as 
question, — 

Seven — Is  not  thought  the  hasis  of  physics  as  it 
existed  before  physics? 

Eiglith — Could  it  (substance),  even  start  to  move 
for  the  purpose  of  becoming  extended  without  force? 

Ninth — Is  thought  of  itself  any  part  of  force,  or 
force  any  part  of  thought,  or  is  substance  a  part  of 
either? 

Tenth — Does  not  the  fact  as  elucidated  i.  e.,  that 
it  requires  the  presence  of  the  three  to  establish  an 
action,  prove  of  itself  the  presence  of,  or  constitiute 
that  which  you  recognize  as  Life? 

Eleventh — rWhen  this  action  takes  place,  and  the 
substance  first  becomes  the  matter  of  extension,  and 
before  it  becomes  a  hody  of  matter,  is  this  the  first  ap- 
pearance of  quickening,  animation,  or  the  dawn  of  the 
life  of  matter? 

Twelfth — If  this  be  the  first  recognized  appearance 
of  life,  would  it  not  be  the  hasis  of  life  and  did  not  this 
condition  first  exist  he  fore  the  cell  or  protoplasm 
could  come  into  existence? 

Thirteenth — Then,  is  not  the  matter  of  extension 
the  physical  hasis  of  life  and  not  the  matter  of  a  cell 
or  hody  the  basis? 

Of  the  great  teacher,  Christ,  it  is  said  that  he  came 
to  those  who  were  not  saved  (educated)  and  not  to 
those  who  were  already  saved.  Therefore  under  this 
view  we  will  close  this  article  by  inquiring :  Why  do 
you  waste  so  much  valuable  space  in  your  books  on 


(  354  ) 

philosophy  (if  really  intended  for  the  public)  by  so 
frequently  interjecting  Greek,  Latin,  and  other  words 
long  since  dead  to  this  class  of  people  you  are  pleased 
to  term  the  rahhle  if  you  are  sincere  in  your  desire 
to  advance  thern  out  of  this  condition  of  ignorance? 


(  355  ) 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

IS  IT  RIGHT  TO  KILL? 

We  will  begin  by  asking  you,  Is  it  wrong  to  kill? 

We  will  assume  that  you  mean  morally  right. 
First,  it  will  be  necessary  to  arrive  at  a  definite  under- 
standing of  the  word  right  and  wrong.  Who  is  the 
judge  of  right  but  yourself?  No  one  has  even  the 
moral  right  to  fix  a  standard  of  right  for  another,  as 
it  is  a  matter  of  personal  opinion  only.  If  a  personal 
God  or  being  created  all  things,  then  the  property 
would,  of  course,  belong  to  him,  and  he  or  his  agents 
would  have  the  right  t-o  say  how  it  should  be  disposed 
of. 

This,  then,  places  the  onus  on  you  to  produce  your 
owner,  and  also  prove  ownership;  and  until  you  do 
so,  each  individual  possesses  a  squatter's  title  to  all 
that  he  has  in  his  possession. 

Here  you  will  perceive  that  all  men  of  average  in- 
telligence possess  a  monitor,  spirit,  or  conscience,  if 
you  please  to  so  designate  it.  These  men  will  ac- 
knowledge that,  irrespective  of  the  opinion  of  others, 
there  is  a  something  indescribable  which  seems  to  be 
within  them,  that,  when  called  upon  by  themselves 
for  an  answer  as  to  the  right  or  wrong  of  an  act  which 
they  are  about  to  perform,  never  fails  to  give,  at  least 
to  them,  a  satisfactory  response. 


(  356  ) 

In  this  connection  it  is  sometimes  said  that  the 
wish  is  father  to  the  thought,  and  so  justice  is 
blinded ;  but  wherever  reason  is  given  an  opportunity 
to  assert  her  sway,  this  little  monitor  never  fails  to 
respond,  and  by  so  doing  proves  that  the  spirit  is 
superior  to,  and  would  govern  and  improve,  the  physi- 
cal or  animal  in  man. 

Next  comes  the  question  to  kill.  Here  we  would 
ask  the  counter  question,  Can  you  kill?  If  to  kill 
means  to  destroy  life  or  animation,  then  we  would 
answer  that  as  we  think  we  have  established  the  fact 
that  there  is  no  death,  it  follows,  then,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  that  yoiu  can  not  destroy  life  or  animation; 
hence  the  question,  when  viewed  in  this  light,  is  self- 
condemnatory.  But  when  you  view  it  in  its  proper 
relation  to  matter  or  organized  atomic  substance, 
which  is  to  interfere  with  the  regular  law  of  sympa- 
thetic attraction  that  produces  an  organized  body  or 
form  of  any  and  all  kinds  whatsoever  that  come  to- 
gether for  the  purpose  of  advancing  their  condition, 
then  our  answer  would  be  both  yes  and  no,  just  as 
your  spirit  or  monitor  should  dictate  to  you. 

You  will  probably  grasp  our  meaning  more  clearly 
if  we  should  put  our  answer  to  the  question,  "  Is  it 
right  to  kill?"  in  the  form  of  a  counter-question,  as 
follows :  Does  not  man  kill  the  lion  and  eat  thereof, 
that  he  may  advance  his  physical  form? 

Now  please  follow  this  analysis  down  the  line.  The 
lion  kills  the  dog  for  the  same  purpose,  the  dog  the 
cat,  the  cat  kills  the  chicken,  the  chicken  the  bug,  the 
bug  kills  the  insect,  the  insect  kills  the  microbe,  the 
microbe  feeds  upon  the  monad,  while  the  monad  or 
cell  owes  its  existence  to  the  atom. 


(  357  ) 

This  same  law  of  form  or  being  applies  also  to  the 
vegetable  and  mineral  kingdom.  And  it  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  the  wisest  minds  among  you  up  to 
the  present  day  have  failed  to  draw  or  discover  the 
line  of  demarcation  just  where  the  mineral  leaves  off 
and  the  vegetable  organism  begins,  or  where  the  vege- 
table leaves  off  and  the  animal  begins. 

Heretofore  scientists  have  endeavored  to  draw  a 
distinction  between  their  so-called  animated  and  in- 
animated  life ;  but  we  shall  still  insist  that  they  have 
failed  in  estahlishing  such  a  line. 

Tt  is  true  that  it  is  altogether  unnecessary  for  them 
to  point  out  to  us  the  difference  between  a  meeting- 
house and  a  lobster.  The  cell  or  protoplasm  is  in  the 
vegetable  as  well  as  the  animal  and  mineral  forma- 
tion. For  every  one  hundred  forms  killed  or  disinte- 
grated, nature  produces  more  than  a  hundred  bodies 
to  take  their  places,  but  of  a  slightly  higher  order. 
There  was  a  time  when  there  were  no  human  forms 
on  the  earth — only  forms  of  a  lower  order;  but  as 
substance  evolved  round  and  round  the  wheel  of 
evolution,  the  human  form  as  well  as  many  others, 
stands  as  Hiring  evidence  of  the  truth  that  all  matter 
is  improving  or  advancing  higher,  and  nearly  all 
forms  advance  only  by  this  process  of  killing  or  feed- 
ing upon  one  another. 

"Large  fleas  have  little  fleas, 
And  these  have  fleas  to  bite  'em; 
While  these  again  have  smaller  fleas, 
And  so  ad  infinitum/' 


(  358  ) 

These  remarks  we  hope  will  serve  to  show  you  the 
absurdity  of  some  of  the  various  cults  or  creeds  which 
advocate  the  doctrine  that  it  is  not  only  wrong  to  eat 
meat  of  any  kind,  but  also  wrong  to  kill  any  animal ; 
yet  these  very  same  people  will  not  hesitate  to  kill 
and  feed  upon  the  vegetable. 

If,  as  they  advocate,  a  Holy  Ghost  created  the  ani- 
mal, did  he  not  also  create  the  vegetable  in  precisely 
the  same  manner? 

The  maw^,  or  stomach,  is  only  one  of  the  many  mills 
of  the  gods,  with  its  eternally  grinding  motion,  the 
force  to  operate  the  same  being  supplied  by  nature's 
positive  and  negative  law  of  attraction  and  repulsion. 
Fire  is  another  important  mill.  What  is  the  light  of 
lire  but  the  rapid  separation  of  the  atoms  of  substance 
by  the  law  of  repulsion?  How  does  it  purify  matter? 
Only  by  giving  individual  freedom  to  the  atom  to  be- 
gin another  form. 

You  will,  we  hope,  perceive  that  to  kill  under  this 
definition  is  not  to  destroy  either  life  or  animation, 
but  is  merely  the  regular  order  in  Avhich  matter 
changes  from  one  form  or  shape  into  another,  or  inte- 
grates to  disintegrate.  Does  not  the  vegetable  feed 
upon  the  minute  animalcule,  which,  in  turn,  feeds  up- 
on the  disintegrating  atoms  of  the  manure  or  carcass? 
This  is  7iot  death  but  a  continuation  of  life.  You  will 
understand  that  the  over-life  of  the  form  or  body  is 
still  in  existence  in  an  imponderable  condition  or 
spirit. 

We  think  we  see  upon  your  mind  the  thought:  If 
this  over-life  is  in  existence  after  the  separation  of  its 
physical  atoms,  then  show  us  this  life  in  some 
manner. 


(  359  ) 

In  reply  it  is  only  necessary  to  ask:  Can  yon  see 
or  sense  your  present  life  in  a  physical  manner? 

Are  you  yet  inclined  to  forget  that  all  of  that  which 
is  real  is  in  an  invisible  condition  to  your  physical 
senses?  Then,  to  kill  under  these  circumstances  is  the 
infallible  law,  or  evolution  must  cease. 

We  would  ask :  If  you  can  kill  a  body,  would  it  not 
be  necessary  to  first  have  a  body  to  hillf  Now,  go 
back  in  this  our  philosophy  and  answer  the  question 
in  the  affirmative,  if  you  can.  At  what  time  did  it  he- 
come  a  body,  or  form,  and  at  what  time  did  it  cease  to 
be  a  body,  and  by  just  what  physical  process  did  this 
change  take  place? 

If  it  was  not  the  intention  of  nature  to  kill  in  this 
manner,  then  all  forms  would  continue  to  enlarge; 
for  nature  abhors  a  state  of  rest  as  well  as  a  vacuum. 
Where,  then,  would  she  procure  her  material?  Not 
only  would  we  have  one  of  Laplace^s  great  suns,  but 
countless  millions  of  them. 

Round  and  round  the  circular  vortex  we  pass  in  a 
spiral  manner,  both  in  the  process  of  integration  as 
well  as  disintegration.  Seat  yourself  in  a  still  room 
by  the  window  where  the  sun's  rays  are  passing  in; 
light  a  cigar;  then  slowly  eject  the  smoke;  now  ob- 
serve the  atoms  as  they  are  set  free  from  the  body  of 
the  cigar  in  the  form  of  smoke.  You  will  observe  that 
they  are  gradually  losing  their  sympathetic  attraction 
for  each  other  and  separating  farther  and  farther 
apart.  You  will  also  observe  that  they  do  not  move 
in  a  straight  line  but  in  a  vortex  whirl. 

Prom  this  fact  you  will  infer  that  the  law  of  repul- 
sion or  disintegration  is  the  same  modus  operandi  as 


(  360  ) 

attraction  or  integration.  Let  the  time  of  one  revolu- 
tion or  whirl  be  a  secondary  consideration,  it  may  be 
a  secodid  or  a  million  years;  thus  we  are  justified  in 
our  deductions  when  you  consider  that  the  full  life  of 
some  objects  is  but  a  few  minutes  while  other  forms 
continue  for  years. 

All  forms  have  an  objective  point  in  the  future  to 
attain  their  full  physical  growth,  called  their  average 
age;  this  age  of  the  form  is,  as  you  are  aware,  very 
various. 

The  earth  itself  has  a  point  of  time  in  the  far  dis- 
tant future  when  it,  as  a  physical  form,  shall  have 
reached  its  full  development  as  physical  matter.  We 
are  justified  in  this  hypothesis  from  the  known  fact 
that  it  had  a  'beginning ,  hence  it  must  have  an  end, 
and  we  are  further  justified  in  this  assumption  from 
the  fact  that  all  the  minor  forms  it  produces,  such  as 
the  apple,  man,  etc.,  have  a  physical  limit;  and  as  the 
spirit  of  man  continues  to  exist  after  the  so-called 
death  of  its  physical  form,  then  why  not  all  other 
forms  which  had  their  origin  in  precisely  the  same 
mannery  even  the  earth  itself. 

The  spirit  which  is  left  after  the  dissolution  of  the 
physical,  being  still  matter  though  imponderable,  col- 
lected its  matter  from  the  earth;  then,  if  this  drain 
shall  continue,  as  it  certainly  must  unless  the  earth 
form  is  replenished  from  some  other  unknown  source, 
is  it  not  apparent  that  there  must  come  a  time  when 
there  shall  be  no  more  physical  earth-matter  to  draw 
from? 

This  fact  will  serve  to  illustrate  to  you  that  the  age 
of  a  physical  form  is  an  incomprehensible  quantity ^ 


(  361  ) 

from  its  first  two  organized  atoms  to  the  earth  itself. 
And  thus  do  the  mills  keep  slowly  moving,  round  and 
round,  in  this  vast  boundless  amazing  swirl  of  evolu- 
tion, giving  a  little  but  taking  more. 

And  as  physical  life  is  but  a  span 
Then  solve  this  riddle,  you  who  can. 


CHARITY. 

As  no  one  reaches  perfection  that  we  have  any 
knowledge  of,  it  would  seem  to  us  that  not  alono 
Socrates,  but  those  that  have  attempted  to  follow  him, 
have  overlooked  this  branch  of  virtue  as  related  to 
temperance ;  for  when  a  man  has  reached  that  exalted 
lieight  that  he  can  positively  assert  as  a  truth  that  he 
is  a  just  oi:  good  man,  this  state  would  be  physical  per- 
fection, which  would  bring  us  to  the  end  of  evolution 
— i.  e.  perfection, — so  far  as  the  object  of  physical  life 
is  understood. 

Then,  to  be  temperate  in  our  association  with  our 
fellowman  is  to  exercise  such  a  proportionable 
amount  of  charity  in  every  individual  case  as  may  pre- 
sent itself  for  our  consideration,  hence  we  deduce 
that  charity  is  a  fundamental  function  of  virtue  and 
justice,  to  be  meted  out  as  the  exigency  of  the  occas- 
ion may  require. 

While  these  remarks  are  a  little  foreign  to  our  par- 
ticular line  of  philosophy  (or  the  road  that  we  have 
seen  fit  to  travel  in  our  endeavor  to  reach  Rome) ,  yet 
we  cannot  refrain  from  calling  your  attention  to  this 
apparent  fact:    How  little  progress  in  philosophy 


(  362  ) 

your  modern  thinkers  have  made  over  and  above  that 
which  was  first  promulgated  by  Socrates,  the  father  of 
philosophy;  i.  e.  when  you  strip  your  modernly  be- 
spangled garments  from  off  the  crude  production  of 
one  who  was  not  ashamed  to  acknowledge  that  he  was 
guided  hy  a  spirit. 

For  be  that  spirit  demon,  devil,  or  angel,  to  him,  a 
wise  man  of  his  time^  in  the  evolution  of  things,  it 
mattered  not,  so  long  as  the  teachings  were  superior 
to  the  present  egotistical  sophistry  of  the  time  and 
had  a  tendency  to  make  men  better  by  a  knowledge  of 
truth  from  an  application  of  the  common  sense  of 
things  that  are. 

And  now,  in  these  few  brief  remarks,  we  take  occas- 
ion to  say  that  if  in  the  future  development  of  knowl- 
edge it  shall  appear  that  we  have  dealt  unjustly  witli 
those  who  advocate  a  different  philosophy  Jrom  ours, 
we  hope  that  they  may  have  so  developed  that  charity 
of  which  we  speak  as  shall  convince  them  that  if  we 
have  so  erred  it  was  from  ignorance  of,  shall  we  say, 
the  hypothecated  truths  of  the  spirit  of  matter  as  we 
understand  its  presentation  to  this  generation. 

For  we  do  find  at  this  day  all  kinds  of  opinions  ema- 
nating from  those  who  should  be,  if  they  are  not,  rea- 
sonably well  educated  in  the  science  of  metaphysics ; 
some  denying  and  others  affirming  the  truth  of  spirit 
forces — preachers,  bishops,  and  laymen.  However, 
it  is  easy  to  see  the  egoist  merely  fears  for  the  loss  of 
his  occupation, — i.  e.  his  bread  and  butter, — for  while 
the  more  just  among  them  admit  that  spirits  do  com- 
mimicate^  their  opinion  is  (and  it  is  only  an  opinion) 
that  they  are  had  spirits. 


(  363  ) 

If  they  were  correct  in  this  opinion,  then  the  con- 
trary or  negative  of  good  holds  the  balance  of  power 
beyond  the  grave,  and  it  would  behoove  mortals  to 
determine  just  how  far  the  good  could  encroach  on  the 
domain  of  the  bad  and  not  be  bad,  and,  in  like  manner 
how  bad  a  man  could  be  to  just  miss  the  gates  of  hell. 
As  there  is  no  definable  line  between  the  insect  that 
steals  the  body  of  a  microbe  and  the  man  who  steals 
the  body  of  a  lion,  it  would  seem  to  us  that  to  locate 
this  line  of  demarcation  would  stagger  the  rhetorics 
of  a  Protagoras,  the  philosophy  of  Socrates,  or  the 
common  sense  of  justice — i.  e.  according  to  Hume  or 
Kant's  rational  common  sense. 

We  contend  that  a  temperate  or  moderate  course  in 
all  things  is  to  the  best  interest  of  the  individual  or 
community,  either  in  a  spiritual  or  material  sense, 
at  the  present  stage  of  evolution,  as  from  a  backward 
glance  we  see  the  same  old  reliable  mill  of  the  gods  is 
still  grinding  out  such  a  grist  as  is  suitable  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  time  and  people;  and  just  where 
mortality  closes  the  book  at  the  grave,  at  that  page  it 
is.  opened  in  immortality  to  continue  the  work  on  a 
higher  plane  of  comprehension. 

But  we  find  the  difiCerentiation  from  the  lowest  ex- 
treme is  one  continuous  advance  to  higher  and  higher 
unfoldment  on  the  spirit-side  of  life  precisely  as  it  is 
on  the  mortal  plane. 

The  cause  of  the  misconception  among  mortals  as 
regards  their  ideas  of  what  so-called  heaven  and  hell 
should  be,  is  their  hereditary  teaching  which,  you  are 
aware,  is  as  many  and  various  as  the  entire  number 
of  mortals  now  peopling  the  earth,  for  no  two  things 
or  ideas  are  alike. 


(364) 

Hence  man,  in  his  egoism,  has  taken  the  responsi- 
bility upon  himself  to  say  just  what  shall  constitute 
the  attributes  and  essence  of  God  by  setting  up  as  the 
standard  of  measure  by  which  all  men  shall  be  judged 
the  following :  Justice,  truth,  virtue,  conscience,  rea- 
son, knowledge,  ("thou  shalt  not  kill."  Kill  what?) 
This  is  nothing  more  or  less  that  a  man  made  God, 
That  these  attributes  are  the  best  that  man  has  in  his 
shop  up  to  date  is  not  to  be  denied,  and  if,  as  the 
credulists  affirm,  there  is  no  communication  between 
the  physical  and  the  spirit  world,  how  then  can  they 
assert  that  these  in  particular  are  what  constitute  a 
whole  or  any  part  of  the  infinite  system  of  eternal  pro- 
gress. 

The  ego  in  its  relation  to  the  infinite,  what  its  pur- 
pose is,  or  what  the  exact  nature  of  infinite  perfection 
is,  is  ahsolutely  beyond  all  spirit  of  human  compre- 
hension, ^lan  only  infers  that  these  attributes  are 
good  from  his  power  of  observation  of  the  various  ef- 
fects that  change  produces  in  and  on  physical  matter. 
How  absurd,  then,  to-  say  that  this  or  that  is  good  and 
godlike  for,  of  a  truth,  it  is  only  like  them  as  you  con- 
ceive them  to  be,  for  you  cannot  liken  or  compare  a 
thing  to  that  which  neither  the  so-called  mind,  con- 
science, ego,  or  spirit  can  perceive,  either  subjective- 
ly or  objectively,  as  having  an  opposite. 

For  instance,  to  place  the  highest  human  construc- 
tion on  what  is  God  would  be  to  say  it  is  the  entire 
amount  in  quantity  and  quality  of  all  that  be  or  is 
(pantheism).  Now  the  opposite  to  this  would  be 
nothing,  or  a  state  of  nothingness,  and  as  the  mind 
cannot  for  a  fact  grasp  these  two  extremes,  even  as  an 


(  365  ) 

idea,  then  it  follows  that  you  cannot  form  or  conceive 
the  sligiitest  knowledge  of  what  perfection  is  or 
whether  evolution  has  yet  had  time  to  bring  all  that  is 
face  to  face  with  infinite  perfection,  (perfection  not 
yet  being  born ) .  This  in  turn  would  be  sufficient  evi- 
dence that  you  could  not  conceive  of  a  thing  that  did 
not  exist,  or  draw  a  comparison  of  something  that  did 
exist  with  something  that  did  not  exist. 

Let  us  inquire  a  little  further.  Is  it  right  to  love 
the  Good  and  Beaut  if  id  f  While  we  do  not  wish  to  be 
frivolous,  yet  we  feel  inclined  to  ask  you  a  very  practi 
cal  question  that  will  in  a  measure  apply  to  this 
article  as  regards  the  right  to  love  the  Good  and 
Beautiful;  i.  e.  are  these  things,  and  have  they  real 
existence,  or  are  they  mere  ideas  or  opinions? 

By  way  of  illustration  we  will  say:  here  stand  a 
dozen  hungry  cannibals.  Before  them  is  a  w-ell- 
roasted,  fat  missionary.  To  these  cannibals  four 
absolute  truths  present  themselves  for  their  con- 
sideration, d.  w.  t.  is  it  right  to  admire  and  love  the 
(}ood  and  Beautiful? 

These  people  have  as  undoubted  a  right  to  satisfy 
their  hunger  on  roast  missionary  as  you  have  on  roast 
monkey  or  any  other  roast.  Then  follows  as  a  ques- 
tion of  truth,  is  it  not  good  to  them,  and  do  they  love 
it?  At  that  stage  of  their  appetite,  is  it  not  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  of  things?  Now,  please  consider 
this  missionary's  ideas  of  truth,  right,  etc.,  before  the 
roasting.  Was  it  not  just  the  opposite?  Then  allow 
us  to  ask  if  these  things  be  other  than  mere  ideas,  he- 
liefs,  or  opinions? 

Then,  how  can  an  existing  thing  be  its  own  opposite 


(  866  ) 

at  one  and  the  same  time?  We  can  not  conceive  of 
how  a  thing  can  be  right  and  the  same  time  wrong,  or 
love  and  hate,  good  and  bad,  etc.  This  will  serve  to 
show  that  all  of  those  so-called  attributes  of  con- 
science are  derived  entirely  from  your  hereditary 
teachings  and  surroundings;  that  which  your  sur- 
roundings teach  you  to  conceive,  to  be  right  and  good. 
Their  conditions  lead  them  to  conceive  the  opposite, 
and  only  omniscience  may  answer  or  determine  this 
question. 

With  space  as  our  canvas  and  time  for  a  pencil 
We  've  traced  from  a  point  the  atom  I  ween. 
With  thought  as  a  factor,  and  force  as  the  actor, 
The  substance  of  matter  the  Ego's  unseen. 

Through  the  long  lapse  of  ages  and  the  work  of  your  Sages, 

Is  conscience  or  will  a  thi7Lg  to  be  bought  ? 

And  if  thus  disposed  of  the  remainder  we  know  of, 

As  we  seem  but  to  reason  by  adding  a  thought. 

I  conceive  by  a  think  that  the  spirit  may  link 
Not  the  will  but  the  soul  to  the  Ego  may  be. 
For  to  reason  by  reason  were  a  paradox  treason 
To  the  mind,  the  I  AM,  that  strives  to  be  free. 


(  367  ) 


CHAPTER  XLII. 

A  REVIEW  AND  ADIEU. 

Veritatis  simplex  oratio  est 

The  atoms  of  substance  that  compose  a  single  drop 
of  blood  are  but  the  functional  parts  of  that  organized 
drop  of  blood;  the  drops  of  blood  that  compose  the 
body  are  but  functions  of  the  organized  body;  the 
bodies  that  compose  the  community  are  but  functions 
of  the  organized  community;  the  community  are  but 
functions  of  this  organized  planet;  the  innumerable 
planets  that  occupy  all  space  are  but  the  functional 
parts  of  one  stupendous  organism  or  whole,  of  which 
the  spark  of  Life  in  the  single  atom  is  the  integral 
part  of  all  intelligence^  force^  and  change.  And,  as 
you  see  and  comprehend  its  modus  operandi  in  the 
unity  or  organization  of  the  lesser  atoms  of  matter 
and  life,  so  it  is  with  the  greater — at  least  as  far  as 
the  veil  of  the  infinite  has  been  removed  for  our  con- 
sideration. Therefore,  the  effect  of  the  uniting  of  all 
the  life,  of  all  atomic  matter,  should,  from  a  natural 
course  of  reasoning,  produce  an  over-soul^  or  one 
great  over-life^  or  God, 


(368  ) 
LIFE   AND    MATTER   PRODUCED   GOD. 

Hence  you  will  perceive  from  this  course  of  reason- 
ing that  instead  of  a  personal  God  or  being  creating 
Life  and  matter  out  of  nothing,  that  life  and  matter 
produced  a  God  (over-life)  out  of  something,  i.  e.,  the 
atom.  (See  Volnej's  Ruins,  12th  chapter.)  On  the 
one  hand  you  are  compelled  to  create  a  purely  chimer- 
ical being  out  of  nothing,  or  assume  that  he  always 
existed,  a  supposed  existing  thing  that,  from  itsTery 
nature,  is  not  susceptible  of  any  Icnown  proof  or  even 
a  reasonable  conjecture;  on  the  other  hand,  if  you  are 
obliged  to  resort  to  suppositions,  is  it  not  more  ra- 
tional to  suppose  that  life  and  matter  always  existed, 
does  it  not  furnish  a  real,  tangible  something  that, 
while  you  can  realize  that  life  and  matter  do  have  an 
actual  existence,  and,  as  far  as  known,  are  indestruc- 
tible— i.  e.  having  no  end  hence  no  beginning — then, 
is  it  at  all  at  variance  with  the  natural  law  of  analogi- 
cal deductions  or  contrary  to  all  known  human  rules 
of  reason? 

If  you  are  going  to  shoot,  is  it  not  better  to  shoot 
at  even  a  real  shadow  than  to  shoot  at  nothing  what- 
ever? 

After  having  begun  our  investigations  from  the 
least  of  all  existing  things  known  to  men  and  traced 
this  little  insignificant  atom  upwards  in  a  philosophi- 
cal as  well  as  a  scientifical  manner,  to  the  best  of  our 
ability,  from  cause  to  effect,  we  find  that  it  leads  to 
the  limit  of  human  knowledge,  the  over-soul  of  all 
things. 

And  now  we  would  ask  the  student  or  the  lover  of 


(  369  ) 

truth  to  begin  at  this  exalted  point  to  which  we  have 
endeavored  to  lead  him — i.  e.,  the  over-life — and  with 
that  spirit  of  candor  and  fairness  to  which  all  lovers 
of  free  truth  are  wedded,  trace  this,  our  philosophy, 
backwards  from  Icnown  effect  to  knoicn  causey  care- 
fully, very  carefully,  and  see  if  you  can  discover  a 
reasonable  inconsistency  or  a  missing  link  in  the 
chain  of  evidence  which  it  has  been  our  great  pleasure 
to  weave  and  place  before  you  for  your  consideration. 
And  now,  before  bidding  you  adieu,  we  would  suggest 
that  you  get  all  the  joy  out  of  life  you  can,  but  not  at 
the  expense  of  another. 

Thanking  you  for  your  fidelity  to  our  cause  and  tho 
patience  which  you  have  displayed  towards  me  and 
mine.  Allow  me  to  remain  forever  thine, 

VIVE,  VALE.  P.  P. 


(  370  ) 


THE      OBITUARY. 

What  sound  is  this  I  hear  at  last? 
'T  'is  Eoyal  Charon's  bugle-blast 
Warns  me  my  sands  are  falling  fast. 
Land  me,  good  boatman,  at  the  mole 
The  light  of  truth  I  may  behold ; 
Ferry  me  gently  o'er  your  sea 
To  one  who  's  'waiting  there  for  me. 
The  eye  grows  dim,  I  cannot  hear, 
I  'm  drunk  with  joy  and  have  no  fear. 

Then,  haily  brave  Charon,  boatman  bold, 
Come  pilot  me  o'er  this  new  threshold 
Of  fields  unlimited  by  dimension 
To  a  higher  plane  of  comprehension 
And,  as  we  draw  near  thy  royal  moat 
Wind  ye  a  loud  and  louder  note. 

As  I  was  first,  just  so  I  'm  last 

Of  this  ever-changing  column. 

For  all  that 's  earth  must  heed  thy  blast 

Farewell !    I  '11  close  the  volume. 

Chas.  H.  Foster. 


(371  ) 


APPENDIX. 

INDEPENDENT  SPIRIT  WRITING. 

(April  14,  1890.) 

( This  is  a  copy  of  a  series  of  spirit  writings,  or  in- 
dependent pencil  writing,  by  the  Spirit  Sylvia,  as  dic- 
tated by  her  father,  the  Spirit  Ptolemy  Philadislphus, 
through  the  forces  of  Mrs.  Helen  Fairchild.) 

Attest,  C.  H.  Foster. 

My  beloved  friend :  What  a  great  pleasure  this  is 
to  me  to  open  the  chapter  of  these  writings  that  we 
expect  to  give  you  in  these  sittings.  We  will  have 
other  work  also  to  thoroughly  organize  your  band  and 
lay  the  foundation  of  the  great  edifice  Avhich  we  hope 
to  reach  in  time;  it  will  not  be  accomplished  in  a 
moment ;  but  fidelity  and  patience  must  be  our  motto, 
for  we  shall  not  always  be  able  to  give  you  writings 
at  every  sitting,  as  there  is  much  you  do  not  under- 
stand concerning  the  laws  through  which  we  operate, 
and  we  cannot  always  govern  them. 

First,  we  will  introduce  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  who 
has  now  joined  us  in  our  work,  and  is  henceforth  one 
of  your  guides.  We  will  open  with  a  description  of 
the  splendid  festival  given  by  Ptolemy  Philadelphus 


(  37-2  ) 

to  the  people  when  he  ascended  the  throne  as  King  of 
Egypt.  This  pompous  solemnity  continued  a  whole 
day  and  was  conducted  through  the  whole  extent  of 
the  City  of  Alexandria;  it  was  divided  into  several 
parts  and  formed  a  variety  of  separate  processions. 

Besides  those  of  the  king's  father  and  mother,  the 
gods  had  each  of  them  a  distinct  cavalcade,  the  decor- 
ations of  which  were  descriptions  of  their  history. 

The  procession  began  with  a  troop  of  Sileni,  some 
habited  in  purple,  others  in  robes  of  deep  red;  their 
employment  Avas  to  keep  off  the  crowd  and  make  way. 
Next  to  the  Sileni  came  a  band  of  Satyrs  composed  of 
twenty,  in  two  ranks,  each  carrying  a  gilded  lamp; 
these  were  succeeded  by  Victories,  with  golden  wings, 
carrying  vases  in  which  perfumes  were  burning,  nine 
feet  in  height,  partly  gilt  and  partly  adorned  with 
leaves  of  ivy ;  their  habits  were  embroidered  with  the 
figures  of  animals  and  every  part  of  them  glittered 
with  gold.  After  these  came  a  double  altar,  nine  feet 
in  height  and  covered  with  a  luxuriant  foliage  of  ivy 
intermixed  with  ornaments  of  gold ;  it  was  also  beau- 
tified with  a  golden  crown,  composed  of  vine  leaves 
and  adorned  on  all  sides  with  white  fillets. 

April  20,  1890— The  Second  Sitting. 

A  hundred  and  twenty  youths  advanced  next, 
clothed  in  purple  vests,  each  of  them  bearing  a  golden 
vase  of  incense,  myrrh,  and  saffron;  they  were  fol- 
lowed by  forty  Satyrs,  wearing  crowns  of  gold  which 
represented  the  leaves  of  ivy,  and  in  the  right  hand 
of  each  was  another  crown  of  the  same  metal  adorned 


(  373  ) 

with  vine-leaves;  their  habits  were  diversified  with  a 
variety  of  colors. 

In  the  rear  of  these  marched  two  Sileni,  arrayed  in 
purple  mantles  and  white  draAvers ;  one  of  them  wore 
a  kind  of  hat  and  carried  a  golden  saduceus  in  his 
hand,  the  other  had  a  trumpet.  Between  these  two 
was  a  man  six  feet  in  height,  masked  and  habited  like 
a  tragedian.  He  also  carried  a  golden  cornucopia 
and  was  distinguished  by  the  appellation  of  the  year. 
This  person  preceded  a  very  beautiful  woman,  as  tall 
as  himself,  dressed  in  a  magnificent  manner,  and  glit- 
tering all  over  with  gold.  She  held  in  one  hand  a 
crown  composed  of  the  leaves  of  the  peach-tree,  and  in 
the  other  a  bunch  of  palm.  She  was  called  Penti- 
teris. 

The  next  were  the  Genii  of  the  four  seasons,  bearing 
characteristic  ornaments  and  supporting  two  golden 
vases,  colors,  adorned  with  ivy  leaves,  in  the  midst  of 
them  was  a  square  altar  of  gold.  A  band  of  Satyrs 
then  appeared,  wearing  golden  crowns,  fashioned  like 
the  leaves  of  ivy  and  arrayed  in  red  habits,  some  bore 
vessels  filled  Avith  wine,  others  carried  drinking  cups. 
Immediately  after  these  came  Phileseus,  the  Poet  and 
Priest  of  Bacchus,  attended  by  comedians,  musicians, 
dancers,  and  other  persons  of  that  class ;  two  tripods 
were  carried  next,  as  prizes  for  the  victors  at  the  ath- 
letic combats  and  exercises;  one  of  these  tripods,  be- 
ing thirteen  feet  and  a  half  in  height,  was  intended 
for  the  youths,  the  other,  which  was  eighteen  feet  in 
height,  was  designed  for  the  men.  A  car  of  an  extraor- 
dinary size  followed  these;   it  had  four  wheels — 


(  374  ) 

April  26tli— The  Third  Sitting. 

and  was  twenty-one  feet  in  length  and  twelve  in 
breadth  and  was  drawn  by  180  men ;  in  this  car  was  a 
figure  representing  Bacchus,  fifteen  feet  in  height,  in 
the  attitude  of  performing  libations  with  a  large  cup 
of  gold.  He  was  arrayed  in  a  robe  of  brocaded  purple 
which  flowed  down  to  his  feet,  over  this  was  a  trans- 
parent vest  of  saffron  color  and  above  that  a  large 
purple  mantle  embroidered  with  gold.  Before  him 
was  a  great  vessel  of  gold,  finished  in  the  Lacedemo- 
nian fashion  and  containing  fifteen  measures,  called 
metretes.  This  was  accompanied  with  a  golden  tri- 
pod on  which  was  placed  a  golden  vase  of  adorns,  with 
two  cups  of  gold  full  of  cinnamon  and  saffron. 

Bacchus  was  seated  under  the  shade  of  ivy  and  vine 
leaves  intermixed  with  the  foliage  of  fruit  trees  and 
from  these  hung  several  crowns,  fillets  and  thyrsi, 
with  timbrels,  ribands  and  a  variety  of  satiric,  comic 
and  tragic  masks.  In  the  same  car  came  the  priest 
and  priestesses  of  that  deity,  with  the  other  ministers 
and  interpreters  of  mysteries,  dancers  of  all  classes 
and  women  bearing  vases. 

These  were  followed  by  the  Bacchantes  who 
marched  with  their  hair  disheveled  and  wore  crowns 
composed,  some  of  serpents,  others  of  branches  of  the 
yew,  the  vine  and  the  ivy;  some  of  these  women  car- 
ried knives  in  their  hands,  others  grasped  serpents. 
After  these  advanced  another  car,  twelve  feet  in 
breadth  and  drawn  by  sixty  men;  in  this  was  the 
statue  of  Nysser,  sitting  twelve  feet  high  and  clothed 
with  a  yellow  vest  and  embroidered  with  gold  over 


(  375  ) 

which  was  another  Laconic  habit;  the  statue  rose  by 
the  aid  of  some  machines  without  being  touched  by 
any  person  and,  after  it  had  poured  milk  out  of  a 
golden  cup,  it  resumed  its  former  seat;  its  left  hand 
held  a  thyrsus  adorned  with  ribands  and  it  wore  a 
golden  crown  on  which  were  represented  leaves  of  ivy 
with  clusters  of  grapes,  composed  of  various  gems;  it 
was  covered  with  a  deep  shade  formed  of  blended  foli- 
age and  a  gilded  lamp  hung  at  each  corner  of  the  car. 

After  this  came  another  car  thirty-six  feet  in  length 
and  twenty-four  in  breadth,  drawn  by  three  hundred 
men;  on  this  was  placed  a  wine  press,  also  thirty-six 
feet  long  and  twenty-two  and  a  half  broad,  this  was 
full  of  the  produce  of  the  vintage;  six  Satyrs  trod  the 
grapes  to  the  sound  of  a  flute  and  sang  such  airs  as 
corresponded  with  the  action  in  which  they  were  em- 
ployed. Silenus  was  the  chief  of  the  band  and 
streams  of  wine  flowed  from  the  chariot  throughout 
the  whole  procession. 

Another  car  of  the  same  magnitude  was  drawTi  by 
600  men ;  this  carried  a  vat  of  a  prodigious  size  made 
of  leopards'  skins  sewed  together;  the  vessel  con- 
tained 3000  measures  and  shed  a  constant  effusion  of 
wine  during  the  procession. 

April  27th— The  Fourth  Sitting. 

This  troop  was  immediately  succeeded  by  a  silver 
vat,  containing  600  metretes,  placed  on  a  car  drawn 
by  the  same  number  of  men;  the  vessel  was  adorned 
with  chased  work  and  the  rim,  together  with  the  two 
handles  and  the  base,  were  embellished  with  the  fig- 


(  376  ) 

ures  of  animals;  the  middle  part  oT  it  was  encom- 
passed with  a  golden  cover  adorned  with  jewels. 

Next  appeared  two  silver  bowls  eighteen  feet  in 
diameter  and  nine  in  height;  the  upper  part  of  their 
circumference  was  adorned  with  studs  and  the  bot- 
tom with  small  animals,  three  of  which  were  a  foot 
and  a  half  high  and  many  more  of  a  lesser  size. 
These  were  followed  by  ten  great  vats  and  sixteen 
other  vessels,  the  largest  of  which  contained  thirty 
metretes  and  the  least  five.  There  were  likewise  ten 
cauldrons,  twenty-four  vases  with  two  handles  dis- 
played, and  five  saluces;  two  silver  wine  presses,  on 
which  were  placed  twentj^-f our  goblets ;  a  table  of  mas- 
sive silver,  eighteen  feet  in  length,  and  thirty  more 
of  six  feet;  four  tripods,  one  of  massive  silver  and  a 
circumference  of  twenty-four  feet,  the  other  three 
were  smaller  and  were  adorned  witli  precious  stones ; 
in  the  middle  of  tliese  came  eighty  Delphic  tripods,  all 
of  silver,  something  less  than  the  preceding,  they  were 
likewise  accompanied  by  twenty-six  ewers,  sixteen 
flagons  and  160  other  vessels,  the  largest  of  which  con- 
tained six  metretes  and  the  smallest  two,  all  of  these 
vessels  were  of  silver. 

After  these  came  the  golden  vessels,  four  of  Avhich, 
called  Laconic,  were  crowned  with  vine  leaves. 
There  were  likewise  two  Corinthian  vases  whose  rims 
and  middle  circumference  were  embellished  with  the 
figures  of  animals,  these  contained  eight  metretes;  a 
wine  press  on  which  ten  goblets  were  placed,  two 
other  vases  each  of  which  contained  five  metretes  and 
two  more  that  held  a  couple  of  measures ;  twenty-two 
vessels  for  preserving  lignus  crol,  the  largest  of  which 


(  377  ) 

contained  thirty  metretes  and  the  least  one.  Two 
golden  tripods  of  an  extraordinary  size;  a  kind  of  gol- 
den basket,  intended  as  a  repository  for  vessels  of 
gold,  this  was  enriched  with  jewels  and  was  fifteen 
feet  in  length,  it  was  likewise  divided  into  six  parti- 
tions, one  above  another,  adorned  with  various  figures 
of  animals  about  three  feet  in  height.  Two  goblets 
and  two  glass  bowls  with  golden  ornaments;  two  sal- 
vers of  gold,  four  cubits  in  diameter,  and  three  others 
of  less  dimensions,  ten  ewers.  An  altar  four  feet  and 
a  half  high  and  twenty-five  dishes. 

After  this  rich  equipage  marched  600  youths,  hab- 
ited in  white  vests  and  crowned,  some  of  them  with 
ivy,  others  with  branches  of  pine ; 

May  3d— Fifth  Sitting. 

two  hundred  and  fifty  of  this  band  carried  golden 
vases  and  four  hundred  vases  of  silver,  three  hundrexl 
more  carried  silver  vessels  made  to  keep  liquor  cool. 
After  this  appeared  another  troop  bearing  large 
drinking  vessels,  twenty  of  which  were  of  gold,  fifty 
of  silver  and  three  hundred  diversified  with  various 
colors.  There  were  likewise  several  tables  six  feet  in 
length  and  supporting  a  variety  of  remarkable  ob- 
jects; on  one  was  represented  the  bed  of  Samuel  on 
which  were  disposed  several  vests,  some  of  golden  bro- 
cade, others  adorned  with  precious  stones. 

I  must  not  omit  a  car  thirty-three  feet  in  length  and 
twenty-one  in  breadth,  drawn  by  five  hundred  mem ;  in 
this  was  the  representation  of  a  deep  cavern  sur- 
rounded with  ivy  and  vine  leaves,  from  Avhich  several 


(  378  ) 

pigeons,  ring-doves  and  turtles  issued  out  and  flevY 
about.  Little  boards  were  fastened  to  their  feet  so 
that  thej  might  be  caught  by  the  people.  Around 
them  two  fountains  likewise,  one  of  milk  and  the  other 
of  wine,  flowed  out  of  the  cavern.  All  the  nymphs 
who  stood  around  it  wore  crowns  of  gold. 

Mercury  was  also  seen  with  a  caduceus  in  his  hand 
and  clothed  in  a  splendid  manner.  The  expedition  of 
Bacchus  into  the  Indies  was  exhibited  in  another  car 
where  the  god  was  represented  by  another  statue 
eighteen  feet  in  height  and  mounted  upon  an  ele- 
phant; he  was  arrayed  in  purple  and  wore  a  golden 
crown  intermixed  with  twining  ivy  and  vine  leaves; 
a  long  thyrsus  of  gold  was  in  his  hand  and  his  sandals 
were  of  gold ;  on  the  neck  of  the  elephant  was  seated  a 
Satyr  about  seven  feet  high,  with  a  crown  of  gold 
upon  his  head  formed  in  imitation  of  pine  branches 
and  blowing  a  kind  of  trumpet  made  of  a  goat's  horn. 
The  trappings  of  the  elephant  w^ere  of  gold  and  his 
neck  was  adorned  with  a  crown  of  gold,  shaped  like 
the  foliage  of  ivy. 

This  car  was  followed  by  five  hundred  young  vir- 
gins adorned  with  purple  vests  and  golden  zones;  a 
hundred  and  twenty  of  them,  who  commanded  the 
rest,  wore  crowns  of  gold  that  seemed  to  be  composed 
of  the  branches  of  pine.  Next  to  these  came  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty  Satyrs,  armed  at  all  points,  some  in 
silver,  others  in  copper  arms ;  to  these  succeeded  fine 
troops  of  Sileni  and  Satyrs  with  crowns  on  their 
lieads,  mounted  on  asses  some  of  whom  were  entirely 
harnessed  with  gold,  the  rest  with  silver. 

After  this  troop  appeared  a  long  train  of  chariots, 


(  379  ) 

twenty-four  of  which  were  drawn  by  elephants,  sixty 
by  he  goats,  eight  by  ostriches,  twelve  by  lions,  six 
by  aryges,  a  species  of  goat,  fifteen  by  buffaloes,  four 
by  wild  asses  and  seven  by  stags.  In  these  chariots 
were  little  youths  habited  like  charioteers  and  wear- 
ing hats  with  broad  brims ;  they  were  accompanied  by 
others  of  a  lesser  stature,  armed  with  little  bucklers 
and  with  long  thyrsi  and  clothed  in  mantles  embroid- 
ered with  gold.  The  boys  who  performed  were 
crowned  with  branches  of  pine  and  the  lesser  youths 
with  ivy.  On  each  side  of  these  were  three  cars 
drawn  by  camels  and  followed  by  others  drawn  by 
mules;  in  these  cars  were  several  tents  resembling 
those  of  the  Barbarians,  with  Indian  women  and  those 
of  other  nations  habited  like  slaves.  Some  of  these 
camels  carried  300  pounds  weight  of  incense,  others 
200  of  saffron,  cinnamon,  iris  and  other  odoriferous 
spices. 

A  little  distance  from  these  marched  a  band  of  Ethi- 
opians armed  with  pikes,  one  body  of  these  carried 
600  elephant  teeth,  another  2000  branches  of  ebony, 
a  third  sixty  cups  of  gold  and  silver  with  a  large  quan- 
tity of  gold  dust.  After  these  came  two  hunters  car- 
rying gilded  darts  and  marching  at  the  head  of  2400 
dogs  of  the  India  variety,  Hyrcanian  and  Molossian 
breed,  besides  a  variety  of  other  species.  They  were 
succeeded  by  150  men,  supporting  trees  to  which  were 
fastened  several  specief?  of  birds  and  deer ;  cages  were 
also  carried  in  which  were  parrots,  peacocks,  turkey 
hens,  pheasants  and  a  great  number  of  Ethiopian 
birds. 

After  these  appeared  130  sheep  of  that  country,  300 


(  380  ) 

of  the  Arabian  breed,  twenty  of  the  Island  of  Enboea, 
twenty-six  white  Indian  oxen,  eight  of  the  Ethiopian 
species,  also  a  large  white  bear,  fourteen  leopards,  six- 
teen panthers,  four  lynxes,  three  small  bears  and  a 
cameleopard  and  an  Ethiopian  rhinoceros. 

Bacchus  advanced  next,  seated  in  a  car  and  wear- 
ing a  golden  crown  embellished  with  ivy  leaves;  he 
was  represented  as  taking  sanctiiary  at  the  altar  of 
llhea  from  the  prosecution  of  Juno;  Priapus  was 
placed  near  him,  Avith  a  crown  of  gold  formed  like  the 
leaves  of  ivy.  The  statue  of  Juno  was  crowned  with 
a  golden  diadem  and  those  of  Alexander  and  Ptolemy 
wore  crowns  of  fine  gold,  representing  ivy  leaves. 
The  image  of  Virtue  was  placed  near  that  of  Ptolemy 
and  on  her  head  was  a  crown  of  gold  made  in  imita- 
tion of  olive  branches.  Another  statue,  representing 
the  City  of  Corinth,  was  also  near  Ptolemy  with  a 
golden  diadem  on  its  head.  At  a  little  distance  from 
each  of  these  was  a  great  vase  filled  with  golden  cups, 
with  a  large  bowl  of  gold  which  contained  five  me- 
tret€s. 

This  car  was  followed  by  several  women  richly  ar- 
rayed and  bearing  the  names  of  the  Ionian  and  other 
Greek  cities  in  Asia  with  the  Islands  which  had  for- 
merly been  conquered  by  the  Persians.  All  this  train 
wore  crowns  of  gold;  in  another  car  was  a  golden 
thyrsus  135  feet  in  length  and  a  silver  lance  ninety 
feet  long.  In  this  part  of  the  procession  were  a  vari- 
ety of  wild  beasts  and  horses  and  tw^enty-four  lions  of 
a  prodigious  size  and  also  a  great  number  of  cars  in 
which  were  not  only  the  statues  of  Kings  but  those  of 
several  deities. 


(  381  ) 

After  these  came  a  chorus  of  600  men  among  whom 
were  300  who  played  on  gilded  harps  and  wore  golden 
crowns;  at  a  small  distance  from  this  band  marched 
8000  bulls,  all  of  the  same  color  and  adorned  with  gol- 
den frontlets,  in  the  middle  of 

Msij  4th — Sixth  Sitting. 

which  rose  a  crown  of  the  same  metal,  they  were  also 
adorned  with  a  collar  and  an  aegis  hung  on  the  breast 
of  each  bull,  these  trappings  were  of  gold. 

The  procession  of  Jupiter  and  a  great  number  of 
other  deities  advanced  next  and,  after  all  the  rest, 
that  of  Alexander,  whose  statue  of  massive  gold  was 
placed  in  a  car  drawn  by  elephants ;  on  one  side  of  this 
statue  stood  Victory  and  on  the  other  Minerva,  the 
procession  was  graced  with  several  thrones  of  gold 
and  ivy,  on  one  of  which  was  a  large  diadem  of  gold 
and  on  another  a  crown  of  gold,  a  third  supported  a 
crown  and  a  fourth  a  horn  of  solid  gold. 

On  the  throne  of  Ptolemy  Soter,  the  father  of  the 
reigning  prince,  was  a  golden  crown  which  weiglie<l 
10,000  pieces  of  gold.  In  this  procession  were  like- 
wise 350  golden  vases  in  which  perfumes  were  to  be 
burned;  fifty  gilded  altars  accompanied  with  golden 
crowns,  four  couches  of  gold  fifteen  feet  in  height, 
were  fastened  to  one  of  these  altars ;  there  were  like- 
wise twelve  gilded  hearts,  one  of  which  was  eighteen 
feet  in  circumference  and  sixty  feet  in  height  and 
another  was  only  twenty-two  feet  and  a  half  high. 

Nine  Delphic  tripods  of  gold  appeared  next,  six  feet 
in  height  and  there  were  six  others  nine  feet  high,  the 


(  382  ) 

largest  of  all  was  forty-five  feet  high  on  which  were 
placed  several  animals  of  gold,  seven  feet  and  a  half 
high  and  its  upper  part  was  encompassed  with  a  gol- 
den crown  formed  of  a  foliage  of  vine  leaves.  After 
these  were  seen  several  gilded  palms  twelve  feet  in 
length,  together  with  a  caduceus,  gilt  also,  sixty-six 
feet  long ;  a  gilded  thunderbolt  in  length  sixty  feet,  a 
gilded  temple  sixty  feet  in  circumference,  a  double 
horn  twelve  feet  long,  a  vast  number  of  gilded  ani- 
mals, several  of  which  were  eighteen  feet  in  height. 
To  tliese  were  added  several  deer  of  a  stupendous  size 
and  a  set  of  eagles  thirty  feet  high.  Three  thousand 
two  hundred  crowns  of  gold  were  likewise  carried  in 
this  procession,  together  with  a  consecrated  crown  of 
120  feet  in  circumference ;  it  was  adorned  with  a  pro- 
fusion of  gems  and  surrounded  the  entrance  into  the 
temple  of  Berenice. 

There  was  also  another  golden  aegis ;  several  large 
crowns  of  gold  were  also  supported  by  young  virgins 
richly  habited;  one  of  these  crowns  was  three  feet  in 
height  and  twenty-four  in  circumference;  in  this  pro- 
cession was  also  carried  a  golden  ciersas  eighteen  feet 
in  height,  another  of  silver  twenty-seven  feet  high  on 
which  latter  was  the  representation  of  two  thunder- 
bolts of  gold  eighteen  feet  in  length;  an  oaken  crown 
embellished  with  jewels,  twenty  golden  buckles,  sixty- 
four  complete  suits  of  golden  armour,  two  boots  of 
gold  four  feet  and  a  half  in  length,  twelve  golden  ba- 
sins, a  great  number  of  flagons,  ten  large  vases  of 
perfumes  for  the  bath,  twelve  ewers,  fifty  dishes  and 
a  large  number  of  tables ;  all  of  these  were  of  gold. 

There  were  likewise  five  tables  covered  with  golden 


(  383  ) 

goblets  and  a  horn  of  solid  gold  fifty-five  feet  in 
length.  All  those  golden  vessels  and  other  ornaments 
were  in  a  separate  procession  from  that  of  Bacchus, 
which  has  already  been  described. 

There  were  likewise  four  hundred  chariots  laden 
with  vessels  and  other  works  of  silver,  twenty  others 
filled  with  golden  vessels  and  300  more  appropriate 
to  the  carriage  of  aromatic  spices.  The  troops  that 
guarded  this  pjoicession  were  composed  of  57,000  foot 
and  23,300  horse,  w^ell  dressed  and  armed  in  a  magni- 
ficent manner. 

During  the  games  and  public  combats,  which  con- 
tinued for  some  days  after  this  pompous  solemnity, 
Ptolemy  Soter  presented  the  victors  with  twenty 
crowns  of  gold  and  they  received  tAventy-three  from 
his  consort  Berenice;  it  appeared  by  the  register  of 
the  palace  that  these  last  crowns  were  valued  at  2330 
talents  and  fifty  mina,  about  334400  L.  sterling,  from 
Avhich  some  judgment  may  be  formed  of  the  immense 
sums  to  which  all  the  gold  and  silver  employed  in  this 
splendid  ceremonial  amounted. 

After  the  excitement  consequent  on  such  a  display, 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  accompanied  by  chosen 
friends  and  two  wise  men  and  a  sensitive,  retired  to 
his  palace  to  enjoy  rest  and  commune  with  the  hosts 
of  invisible  forces ;  the  evening  of  the  third  day  of  the 
month  and  of  the  third  day  after  their  arrival  at  the 
palace,  Ptolemy  and  his  friends  retired  to  a  spacious 
upper  chamber ;  all  the  doors  and  all  the  means  of  in- 
gress and  egress  were  made  secure,  all  were  assigned 
to  seats  of  repose  forming  a  large  circle  around  the 
room;  at  one  end  of  this  spacious  chamber  were  sta- 


(  384  ) 

tioned  twenty-tliree  musicians  who  were  instructeii 
to  render  at  stated  intervals  soft  and  sacred  music 
which  vibrated  to  the  majestic  ceilings,  filling  the 
large  audience  chamber  with  the  sweetest  strains  of 
harmony. 

One  of  the  wise  men  now  took  his  place  inside  of 
the  circle,  soon  he  began  a  waving  motion  of  the  body 
in  accompanying  the  strains  of  music  and  there  ap- 
peared a  second  form  of  a  man  and  they  both  moved 
about  the  circle,  when  another  and  another,  joined 
them  until  there  Avere  thirteen  occupying  the  inner 
circle,  moving  about,  conversing  and  gesticulating 
with  those  occupying  the  outer  circle.  After  thirty 
minutes  spent  in 

May  10th— Seventh  Sitting. 

this  manner  there  came  a  rushing  like  the  sound  of  a 
mighty  wind,  Avhich  filled  every  part  of  the  chamber, 
and  fleecy  white  clouds  floated  about  and  gathered  to- 
gether bright  flecks  of  light  which  grew  in  size,  until 
it  seemed  to  fill  nearly  the  Avhole  space  of  the  inner 
circle,  when  lo  I  twelve  of  the  figures  dissolved  and  dis- 
appeared in  the  one  great  ball  of  light;  after  a  few 
minutes  there  appeared  an  opening  in  the  ball  of  light 
and  a  figure,  brighter  than  any  light  floated  out,  sep- 
arated and  spoke  in  a  voice  that  filled  every  part  of 
tlie  chamber,  prophesying  the  reign  of  Ptolemy,  giv- 
ing advice  and  speaking  of  the  darkness  that  would 
fall  over  Egypt,  of  want  and  woe  and  many  other 
events  that  have  been  fulfilled. 

After  this  all  the  palace  was  illuminated  and  a 


(  385  ) 

great  feast  was  given  all  tlie  guests,  retainers  and  of- 
licers  of  honor.  After  which  Ptolemy  and .  three 
cliosen  friends  retired  to  fast  for  three  days  and  con- 
tinued his  devotion  in  private  for  that  length  of  time. 
Having  gathered  together  in  still  another  inner  cham- 
ber of  the  palace,  this  apartment  being  held  sacred 
to  such  occasions,  the  devotions  were  opened  by  all  si- 
lently offering  i)rayers  after  which  sweet  low  strains 
of  music  filled  the  apartment,  nine  musicians  being 
stationed  near,  in  fact,  only  separated  by  heavy  dra- 
peries. When  an  influence  of  rest  and  harmony  was 
established,  faint  glittering  lights  floated  about  and 
from  these  lights  white  fleecy  clouds  formed  and  many 
voices  spoke  and  conversed;  invisible  voices  accom- 
panied strains  of  music  not  rendered  by  visible 
agency,  the  prophet  Daniel  appeared  and  held  con- 
verse with  l*tolemy  and  called  his  attention  to  how, 
two  thousand  years  before  Ins  reign,  he,  Daniel,  had 
predicted  it;  he  spoke  freely  of  the  darkness  to  fall 
over  Egypt  and  of  the  want  and  war  to  come  to  the 
rising  generation;  he  also  spoke  words  of  encourage- 
ment and  spoke  of  death  as  only  a  change  to  a  highi^r 
development  and  the  awakening  and  renewing  of 
these  forces  again,  when  Ptolemy  should  return  to  his 
people,  even  as  had  Daniel  to  him,  and  again  establish 
the  principles  of  his  people.  At  this  time  he  coun- 
seled depositing  in  vaults  of  safety  a  portion  of  the 
great  wealth  of  the  kingdom,  certain  treasures  of  gold 
and  silver  and  precious  stones ;  he  directed  how  out  of 
iron  and  brass  these  vaults  should  be  constructed  that 
these  treasures  might  rest  in  security  until  Ptolemy 
himself  should  divulge  their  place  of  concealment, 


(  386  ) 

which  should  be  made  known  to  no  one  but  the  wise 
men.  Much  other  valuable  information  was  given, 
also  explanation  of  the  mother  veins  of  the  precious 
metals  and  of  the  beds  of  gems,  also  of  Solomon's 
treasures. 

At  the  approach  of  evening  of  the  third  day  of  their 
devotions,  Ptolemy  and  his  friends  returned  again  to 
the  bustle  of  life  and  the  world  of  care  and  strife  but 
a  Aviser  and  nobler  man  because  of  the  divine  strenjrth 
and  purifying  power.  To  Ptolemy  this  communica- 
tion was  a  very  angel  of  deliverance,  a  living  re- 
deemer, hosts  of  fine  and  wise  spirits  were  there  and 
are  still  trying  ceaselessly  to  help  humanity  to  grow 
God-like  in  character  and  God- ward  in  destiny;  your 
own  angels  and  beloved  spirit  guides  behold  your  na- 
tures unveiled  and  all  revealed.  A  conscientiousness 
in  Ptolemy  here  of  this  fact  was  a  powerful  incentive 
to  strive  to  grow  angel-like,  also  knowing  that 
thought  reflects  thought  and  life  reacts  upon  life. 

Life  then  was  invested  with  a  double  sacredness, 
holding  conscientious  communion  with  purified  im- 
mortals and  believing  in  the  presence  of  beloved  spir- 
its, he  was  thus  strengthened  greatly  to  overcome 
every  imperfection  and  strove  to  reach  ideal  perfec- 
tion, which  became  each  day  more  real  and  was  made 
manifest  in  his  daily  life. 

May  17th  and  18th— The  Eighth  and  Ninth  Sittings. 

Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  after  the  death  of  his  father, 
became  the  sole  master  of  all  his  dominions,  which 
were  composed  of  Egypt  and  many  provinces  depend- 


(  387  ) 

ent  on  it,  that  is  to  say:  Phoenicia,  Cale,  Syria,  Ara- 
bia, Libya,  Aethiopia,  the  Island  Cyprus,  Pamphylia, 
Cilicia,  Lycia,  Coria  and  the  Isles  called  Cyclades. 
The  tumult  of  wars  which  a  diversity  of  interests  had 
kindled  among  the  successors  of  Alexander  through- 
out the  whole  extent  of  his  territories  did  not  prevent 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus  from  devoting  his  utmost  at- 
tention to  the  noble  Library  which  he  had  founded  in 
Alexandria,  v/herein  he  deposited  the  most  valuable 
and  curious  books  he  was  capable  of  collecting  from 
all  parts  of  the  world. 

This  prince,  being  informed  that  the  Jews  possessed 
a  work  which  contained  the  laws  of  Moses  and  the  his- 
tory of  that  people,  formed  the  design  of  having  it 
translated  out  of  the  Hebrew  language  into  the  Greek 
in  order  to  enrich  his  library.  To  accomplish  this  de- 
sign it  became  necessary  for  him  to  address  himself  to 
the  high  priest  of  the  Jewish  nation,  but  the  offer  hap- 
pened to  be  attended  with  great  difficulty.  There 
were,  at  that  time,  a  very  considerable  number  of 
Jews  in  Egypt  who  had  been  reduced  to  a  state  of 
slavery  by  Ptolemy  Soter  during  the  invasion  of  Ju- 
daea in  his  time  and  it  was  represented  to  the  King 
that  there  would  be  no  probability  of  obtaining  from 
that  people  either  a  copy  or  a  faithful  translation  of 
their  law  while  such  a  number  of  their  countrymen 
continue  in  their  present  servitude.  Ptolemy,  who  al- 
Avays  acted  with  the  ut'^.ost  generosity,  and  was  ex- 
tremely solicitous  to  enlarge  his  library,  did  not  hesi- 
tate a  moment  but  issued  a  decree  for  restoring  all  the 
Jewish  slaves  in  his  dominion  to  their  liberty,  with 
orders  to  his  treasurer  to  pay  twenty  drachms  a  head 


(  388  ) 

to  their  masters  for  their  ransom;  the  sum  expended 
on  this  occasion  amounted  to  four  hundred  talents, 
whence  it  appears  that  120,000  Jews  recovered  their 
freedom. 

The  King  then  gave  orders  for  discharging  the  chil- 
dren born  in  slavery,  with  their  mothers,  and  the  sum 
employed  for  that  purpose  amounted  to  about  half 
the  former.  These  advantageous  preliminaries  gave 
Ptolemy  hopes  that  he  should  easily  obtain  his  re- 
quest from  the  high  priest,  whose  name  was  Elazar; 
he  had  sent  ambassadors  to  that  pontiff  with  a  very 
obliging  letter  on  his  part,  accompanied  by  magnifi- 
cent presents ;  the  ambassadors  were  received  at  Jeru- 
salem with  all  imaginable  honors  and  the  King's  re- 
quest was  granted  w^ith  the  greatest  joy,  upon  which 
they  returned  to  Alexandria  with  an  authentic  copy  of 
the  Mosaic  law,  written  in  letters  of  gold,  given  them 
by  the  high  priest  himself;  with  six  elders  of  each 
tribe,  that  is  to  say,  seventy- two  in  the  whole  and 
these  Avere  authorized  to  translate  that  copy  into  the 
Greek  language.  The  King  was  desirous  of  serving 
these  deputies  and  proposed  to  each  of  them  a  differ- 
ent question  in  order  to  make  a  trial  of  their  capacity ; 
he  was  satisfied  with  their  answers,  in  which  great 
wisdom  appeared  and  loaded  them  with  presents  and 
other  marks  of  his  friendship.  The  Elders  w^ere  then 
conducted  to  the  Isle  of  Pharos  and  lodged  in  a  house 
prepared  for  their  reception  where  they  were  plenti- 
fully supplied  with  all  necessary  accommodations; 
they  applied  themselves  to  their  work  without  losing 
time  and  in  seventy-two  days  completed  the  volume 
which  was  called  Septuagint  version ;   the  whole  was 


(  389  ) 

afterwards  read  and  approved  in  presence  of  tlie 
King,  who  particularly  admired  the  wisdom  of  the 
laws  of  Moses,  and  dismissed  the  seventy-two  deputies 
with  extremely  magnificent  presents,  part  of  which 
were  for  themselves,  others  for  the  high  priest  and  the 
remainder  for  the  temple. 

This  version,  therefore,  which  rendered  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  old  Testament  intelligible  to  a  vast  num- 
ber of  people,  became  one  of  the  most  considerable 
fruits  of  the  Grecian  conquests  and  was  evidently 
comprehended  in  the  design  which  God  had  in  view 
when  he  delivered  up  all  the  East  to  the  Greeks  and 
supported  them  in  those  regions,  not^sdthstanding 
their  divisions  and  the  jealousies  there  were  and  the 
frequent  revolutions  that  happened  among  them. 

In  this  manner  did  God  prepare  the  way  for  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel,  which  was  then  approaching, 
and  facilitate  the  union  of  so  many  nations  of  differ- 
ent languages  and  manners  into  one  society  and  the 
same  worship  and  doctrine,  by  the  instrumentality  of 
one  language ;  the  finest,  most  superior  and  most  cor- 
rect that  was  ever  spoken  in  the  world  and  which  be- 
came common  to  all  countries  that  w^ere  conquered  by 
Alexander. 

Ptolemy,  being  solicitous  to  enrich  his  kingdom, 
conceived  it  expedient  to  draw  into  it  all  the  maritime 
commerce  of  the  East,  which,  till  then,  had  been  in  the 
possession  of  the  Tyrians,  who  transacted  it  by  sea  as 
far  as  Elath  and  from  thence  by  land  to  Khinocarurs 
and  from  this  last  place  by  sea  again  to  the  City  of 
Tyre.     Elath  and  Rhinocarurs  were  two  sea  ports 


(390) 


May  24th— Tenth  Sitting. 

the  first  on  the  Eastern  shore  of  the  Bed  Sea  and  the 
second  at  the  extremity  of  the  Mediterranean, 
between  Egypt  and  Palestine  and  near  the  mouth  of 
the  river  of  Egypt. 

Ptolemy,  in  order  to  draw  this  commerce  into  his 
own  kingdom,  thought  it  necessary  to  found  a  city  on 
the  western  shore  of  the  Ked  Sea,  from  whence  the 
ships  were  to  set  out ;  he  accordingly  built  it  on  the 
frontiers,  almost,  of  Ethiopia  and  gave  it  the  name  of 
his  mother,  Berenice,  but  the  port,  not  being  very  com- 
modious, that  of  Myos-Harnus  was  preferred  as  being 
very  near  and  much  better  and  all  the  commodities  of 
Arabia,  Persia,  and  Ethiopia  and  India  were  landed 
here;  from  thence  they  were  conveyed  on  camels  to 
Coptus  where  they  were  again  shipped  and  brought 
down  the  Mle  to  Alexandria  which  transmitted  theiri 
to  all  the  West  in  exchange  for  its  merchandise,  which 
was  afterwards  exported  to  the  East.  But  as  the 
passage  from  Coptus  to  the  Ked  Sea  lay  across  the 
desert  where  no  water  could  be  procured,  and  which 
had  neither  cities  nor  houses  to  lodge  the  caravans, 
Ptolemy,  in  order  to  remedy  this  inconveni-ence, 
caused  a  canal  to  be  opened  along  the  great  road  and 
to  communicate  with  the  Nile  that  supplied  it  with 
water;  on  the  edge  of  this  canal  houses  were  erected 
at  proper  distances  for  the  reception  of  passengers 
and  to  supply  all  the  necessary  accommodations  for 
them  and  for  their  beasts  of  burden. 

The  following  article  was  clipped  from  a  newspaper 


( ^^1 ) 

eight  years  after  Ptolemy  gave  this  independent  writ- 
ing:— 

'^  History  tells  us,"  says  the  New  York  Ledger^ 
"  that  the  canal  known  as  the  Bahr  Joussuf  was  con- 
structed 4,000  years  ago,  and  is  yet  fulfilling  the  pur- 
pose for  which  it  a\  as  made.  The  canal  runs  almost 
parallel  with  the  River  Nile  for  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  miles.  It  turns  and  curves,  creeping  through 
meadows  and  along  the  foothills,  carefully  preserv- 
ing its  level  until  it  reaches  a  point  where  it  turns 
westward,  and  running  through  a  narrow  pass, 
reaches  a  district  which  without  it  would  be  a  desert 
incapable  of  cultivation  and  devoid  of  vegetable  pro- 
ducts which  would  sustain  life.  Of  course  the  state- 
ment that  it  was  really  built  by  Joseph,  the  son  of 
Jacob,  may  or  may  not  be  true,  but  that  it  is  of  untold 
importance  to  that  region  need  not  be  stated.  There 
are  traditions  that  this  canal  was  originally  intended 
to  supply  a  lake  which  was  nearly  five  hundred  miles 
in  circumference  and  that  this  lake  was  the  source  of 
fish  supply  of  that  region,  and  that  the  value  of  this 
product  was  at  least  250,000L.  a  year.  Modern 
engineers  are  giving  much  more  attention  to  old  time 
methods  than  they  did  half  a  century  ago.'' 

Useful  as  all  these  labors  were,  Ptolemy  did  not 
think  them  sufScient  for,  as  he  intended  to  engross 
all  the  traffic  betw^een  the  East  and  the  West  into  his 
dominion,  he  thought  his  plan  would  be  imperfect  un- 
less he  could  protect  what  he  had  facilitated  in  other 
respects.  With  this  view  he  caused  two  fleets  to  be 
fitted  out,  one  for  the  Red  Sea  and  the  other  for  the 
Mediterranean ;  this  last  was  extremely  fine  and  some 


(  392  ) 

of  the  vessels  which  composed  it  much  exceeded  the 
common  size;  two  of  them,  in  particular,  had  thirty 
benches  of  oars,  one  twenty,  four  rowed  with  fourteen, 
two  with  twelve,  fourteen  with  eleven,  thirty  witli 
nine,  thirty-seven  with  seven,  five  with  six,  and  seven- 
teen with  five.  The  number  of  the  whole  amounted  to 
112  vessels ;  he  had  as  many  more  with  four  and  three 
benches  of  oars,  besides  a  prodigious  number  of 
smaller  vessels.  With  this  formidable  fleet  he  not 
only  protected  his  commerce  from  all  insults  but  kept 
in  subjection  as  long  as  he  lived  most  of  the  maritime 
provinces  of  Asia  Minor,  as  Cilicia,  for  instance, 
Lycia  and  Caria,  as  far  as  the  Cyclades. 

Mayas,  King  of  Cyrene  and  Libya,  growing  very 
aged  and  infirm,  caused  overtures  of  accommodations 
to  be  tendered  to  his  brother  Ptolemy  with  the  pro- 
posal of  a  marriage  between  Berenice,  his  only 
daughter  and  the  eldest  son  of  the  King  of  Egypt  and 
a  promise  to  give  her  all  his  dominions  for  her  dowry. 
The  negotiations  succeeded  and  a  peace  was  con- 
cluded on  those  terms.  Mayas,  however,  died  before 
the  execution  of  the  treaty,  having  continued  in  the 
government  of  Libya  and  Cyrenaica  for  the  space  of 
fifty  years;  towards  the  close  of  his  days  he  aban- 
doned himself  to  pleasure  and  particularly  to  excess 
at  his  table,  w^hich  greatly  impaired  his  health. 

His  widow  Apame  resolved  after  his  death  to  break 
off  her  daughter's  marriage  with  the  son  of  Ptolemy, 
as  it  had  been  concluded  without  her  consent.  With 
this  view  she  employed  persons  in  Macedonia  to  invite 
Demetrius,  the  uncle  of  King  Antigonus  Coratus,  to 
come  to  her  court,  assuring  him  at  the  same  time  that 


(  393  ) 

her  daughter  and  crown  should  be  his.  Demetrius 
arrived  there  in  a  short  time  but  as  soon  as  Apame 
beheld  him,  she  contracted  a  violent  passioji  for  him 
and  resolved  to  espouse  him  herself.  From  that 
moment  he  neglected  the  daughter  to  attach  himself 
to  the  mother  and,  as  he  imagined  that  her  favor 
raised  him  above  all  things,  he  began  to  treat  the 
young  princess,  as  well  as  the  ministers  and  oflScers 
of  the  army  in  such  an  insolent  and  imperious  manner 
that  they  formed  a  resolution  to  destroy  him; 
Berenice  herself  conducted  the  conspirators  to  the 
door  of  her  mother's  apartments,  where  they  stabbed 
him  in  his  bed,  though  Apame  employed  all  her  efforts 
to  save  him  and  even  covered  him  with  her  own  body. 

Berenice  after  this  went  to  Egypt  where  her  marri- 
age with  Ptolemy  was  consummated  and  Apame  was 
sent  to  her  brother  Antiochus  Theos  in  Syria.  This 
princess  had  the  art  to  exasperate  her  brother  so 
effectively  against  Ptolemy  that  she  at  last  spirited 
him  up  to  a  Avar  which  continued  for  a  long  space  of 
time  and  was  productive  of  fatal  consequences  to 
Antiochus,  as  will  be  evident. 

Ptolemy  did  not  place  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
army,  his  declining  state  of  health  not  permitting  him 
to  expose  himself  to  the  fatigue  of  a  campaign  and 
the  inconvenience  of  a  camp,  for  which  reason  he  left 
the  war  to  the  conduct  of  his  generals.  Antiochus, 
who  was  then  in  the  floAver  of  his  age,  took  the  field 
at  the  head  of  all  the  forces  of  Babylon  and  the  East 
with  the  resolution  to  carry  on  the  war  with  the  ut- 
most vigor. 

Ptolemy  did  not  forget  to  improve  his  library,  not- 


(  394  ) 

withstanding  the  war  and  continually  enridied  it 
Avith  new  books.  He  was  exceedingly  envious  in  pic- 
tures and  designs  by  great  masters.  Aratus,  the 
famous  Sicyonian,  was  one  of  those  who  collected  for 
him  in  Greece  and  he  had  the  good  fortune  to  gratify 
the  taste  of  that  Prince  for  those  works  of  art  to  such 
a  degree  that  Ptolemy  entertained  a  friendship  for 
him  and  presented  him  with  twenty-five  talents  which 
he  expended  in  the  relief  of  those  necessitous  Sicyon- 
ians  and  the  redemption  of  such  of  them  as  were  de- 
tained in  captivity. 

While  Antiochus  was  employed  in  this  war  with 
Egypt,  a  great  insurrection  was  fermented  in  the  East 
and  his  distance  at  the  time  rendered  him  incapable 
of  taking  the  necessary  steps  to  check  it  with  suffi- 
cient expedition,  the  revolt,  therefore,  daily  gathered 
strength  till  it  at  last  became  incapable  of  remedy; 
these  troubles  gave  birth  to  the  Parthian  Empire. 


May  29th— Twelfth  Sitting. 

My  dear  friend:  I  have  concluded  to  discontinue 
the  writings  for  the  present  and  turn  these  seances 
into  the  positive  and  negative  sittings.  I  have  mucli 
valuable  information  which  I  expected  to  be  able  to 
give  you  in  these  communications  but  we  can  do  so 
in  the  future  through  your  own  forces.  (Here  I  omit 
a  part  of  Ptolemy's  letter  as  purely  private.  C.  H. 
Foster.)  But  we  will  do  the  best  we  can  with  such 
conditions  as  we  can  command  and  if  our  work  is  slow 
we   shall   be   steadily   gaining   and   will   reach   the 


(  395  ) 

principal  of  our  highest  aspirations  in  time.  My 
fondest  wish  is  to  uplift  my  people  and  restore  them 
their  lost  inheritance.  (Again  I  will  skip.  G.  H.  F.) 
Our  adherents  shall  be  of  all  faiths,  denominations 
and  nationalities,  for  these  teachings  are  to  convince 
all  men  of  all  things. 

Let  me  again  express  my  appreciation  of  your  en- 
deavors and  devotion  to  me  and  mine;  most  sincerely 
thine,  Ptolemy  Philadelphus. 


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